Glastonbury On The Drip

Allowing fans to reserve Glastonbury Festival tickets and pay later seems to have paid off big time, as nearly 70,000 were snapped up in a day.

The box office opened Oct. 5 and about 80 percent of the ticket buyers forked over a £50 deposit and agreed to settle the balance by Feb. 1.

The other 14,000 preferred to pay the full amount of £175 (plus a £5 booking fee).

It’s the first time the event has gone on sale as early as eight months in advance, and Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis was reportedly “pretty chuffed” with the results.

Eavis, in an ongoing battle against ticket touts he once described as “no more than rogues and vagabonds,” said he believes he’s managed to hone Glastonbury’s ticketing operation to perfection.

“After three years, I am now confident that we have developed the fairest ticketing operation available anywhere, and we are ready to go,” he said in a note on the festival Web site. “With the new scheme, backed by the all-important registration process, everyone has an equal chance of getting a ticket. And most importantly, every ticket will be going to a genuine festivalgoer direct.”

Those interested in going to next year’s June 24-28 gathering, its first as a five-day event, needed to register by Sept. 1. Each applicant was given a registration number.

When the box office opened, fans were allowed to buy up to six tickets in a single transaction, but only for people who had completed the registration process.

After a half-hour bottleneck with dedicated festivalgoers racing online or picking up the phone, the operation ran smoothly.
Glastonbury press officer John Shearlaw said it would have been surprising if all the tickets sold out immediately so far in advance.

“That would have been extraordinary, without a lineup and eight months before the event. You can look at it from both sides because if they had all sold out, there would have been eight months of turning people away,” he explained, calling the result “a vote of confidence” for the festival.

The sales lines will remain open for a week, with the second round of sales beginning April 6.