Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Glastonbury announce huge shake-up for buying 2025 festival tickets – but fans are not impressed

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Glastonbury has announced a huge shake-up for buying tickets for next year’s festival in a move that has left some fans furious. 

The organisers are set to introduce an online queue for this year’s ticket sale, which is taking place on November 14 and 17.

This will mean that anyone who logs onto the Seetickets website before the sale starts at 6pm or 9am respectively will be randomly assorted a place in a queue along with thousands of others. 

They will then be met with a progress bar indicating how close they are to reaching the booking page. Once this runs outs, fans will be given 10 minutes to enter the website and purchase up to six tickets for the festival. 

While the move is supposedly meant to make the process much fairer for Glastonbury hopefuls, some have claimed they will ‘no longer be rewarded for their persistence’ and could see huge numbers of less devoted fans taking part. 

In a huge shake up to the ticketing process this year, Glastonbury hopefuls will be placed in a queue once the tickets go live on November 14 and 17. Pictured: Diana Ross headlines the Pyramid stage in 2022

After being randomly assorted a place in a queue along they will then be met with a progress bar indicating how close they are to reaching the booking page (pictured)

After being randomly assorted a place in a queue along they will then be met with a progress bar indicating how close they are to reaching the booking page (pictured)

‘The booking process itself for 2025 will be the same as in previous years, however, the way in which you join the booking process is changing,’ a statement on the Glastonbury website said.

‘Rather than refreshing the holding page to attempt to access the booking page, this year, when the ticket sale begins (at 6pm or 9am respectively) everyone who is already on the glastonbury.seetickets.com page will randomly be assigned a place in a queue to access the booking process.

‘Anyone who logs on once the sale has started will automatically be added to the back of the queue, so it’s important to make sure you are online ready at least a few minutes before the sale opens.

‘Once you are in the queue, a progress bar will indicate how close you are to reaching the booking page.’

In yet another shake-up, the statement also revealed that using multiple devices may ‘harm your chances’ at getting tickets. 

‘Whilst we understand that everyone wants to have the best possible chance of booking a ticket, running multiple devices or tabs simultaneously to attempt to access the website may lead to your IP address being blocked, preventing you from buying a ticket,’ the statement added. 

Festivalgoers soak up the sun as they attend Glastonbury festival on June 22, 2022

Festivalgoers soak up the sun as they attend Glastonbury festival on June 22, 2022

Years and Years perform on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury festival in 2019

Years and Years perform on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury festival in 2019

Following the announcement earlier today, furious fans have taken to social media to complain about the ‘horrible news’. 

One wrote on X: ‘So now a huge amount of people that couldn’t be bothered trying past the first 5mins and sat and moaned on Twitter during the sale can sit there with equal chance… think it’s terrible news.’

Another user agreed, saying there would be more people waiting in the queues with hopes of getting a ticket, reducing the overall chances of success for fans. 

Christopher Jones was also left unimpressed by the new change. He added: ‘Its [sic] a shame imo, even if it was always sort of flawed. I liked that persistence was rewarded even if it was luck still.

‘People logging on just to have a look at what’s happening but who aren’t really that bothered can potentially get them now. The chance of that before was slim.’

Many fans pointed to the chaotic sales of Oasis’ reunion tickets earlier this year as a prime example of how a queueing system could backfire. 

Niki Sorabjee said: ‘Awful decision, the previous ticket sale rewarded the determined. Look what happened with Oasis with a queue. Really hope this doesn’t dilute the crowd. Pls rethink this.’

Another devastated fan wrote: ‘Screams problems, got through for Oasis then kicked out after trying to pay, cannot bare that this is possibility for Glastonbury now.’

Many fans pointed to the chaotic sales of Oasis' reunion tickets earlier this year as a prime example of how a queueing system could backfire (File image)

Many fans pointed to the chaotic sales of Oasis’ reunion tickets earlier this year as a prime example of how a queueing system could backfire (File image) 

Thousands were left devastated after they failed to grab tickets in August's general sale - with the band confirming all 17 of their shows had been sold out within hours of them going on sale

Thousands were left devastated after they failed to grab tickets in August’s general sale – with the band confirming all 17 of their shows had been sold out within hours of them going on sale

Thousands were left devastated after they failed to grab tickets in August’s general sale – with the band confirming all 17 of their shows had been sold out within hours of them going on sale. 

Many blamed technical issues on Ticketmaster for their failures as they were forced into a queue just to join the waiting room. 

Others reported getting kicked out of the website as they got to the front having waited in the virtual line for several hours. 

Some hopefuls also reported being ‘suspended’ by the ticket seller after it accused them of being ‘bots’. 

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