Maybe you missed out this year and had everyone going on about how great it was and how Coldplay, actually, really put on a spectacle even if you don’t like their music. Or you did go, and need something to get you through the winter with your sense of joie de vivre intact. Whatever your reason, today marks the first opportunity to bag yourself Glastonbury tickets – here’s a few tips to improve your chances, whether this year or next.
Plan to get the coach
Plenty of people don’t even countenance going to Glastonbury without a car, reasoning that they need a big tent (they don’t), five outfits a day (debatable) and enough box wine to fill a bathtub (strong case to be made). But if you’re willing to get a coach – and reduce your emissions in getting to the festival – you get another chance at buying tickets. The sale with coach tickets begins at 6pm GMT on 14 November, with non-coach tickets going on sale at 9am GMT on 17 November. Also, crucially, you then don’t have to drive home while enduring the mother of all comedowns (from the vibes, of course). With 28 towns and cities served by coaches that take you right up to the festival gates, it’s worth reducing your fancy-dress quotient for.
Get your computer set up properly
The way it works this year is that everyone waiting on the tickets page when they go on sale will be randomly assigned a place in a queue. So if you aren’t already on the page, you will not have the faintest chance of getting a ticket – make sure you are on the page “at least a few minutes before the sale opens”, organisers say.
Don’t open multiple browser tabs
Glastonbury are cracking down on people who try to game the system: “Running multiple devices or tabs simultaneously to attempt to access the website may lead to your IP address being blocked.”
Use your phone
You can however use your phone data alongside your laptop, which will have a separate IP address. Again, only use one browser tab.
Form a syndicate
Each person to successfully reach the front of the queue can buy six tickets, so if you haven’t already done so, form a syndicate of six registered people to log on from different IP addresses – hopefully one of you will be successful and secure tickets for the rest. Old Glastonbury pros often link up these syndicates into a sort of waterfall structure, with each successful person distributing the tickets to people they’ve earmarked, sometimes leaving leftover tickets for others in the group (this is where having someone with an extremely boring job involving spreadsheets really comes in handy). This year – excitingly! – there will be a progress bar showing how close you are to the front of the queue, so this will hopefully help to ascertain who from your group is most likely to be successful.
Gather info ahead of time
You will only have 10 minutes to buy tickets before you’re kicked out of the queue with all the grace of a security guard on their fourth shift of the weekend. Make sure you have the ticket registration numbers and postcodes of everyone you’re planning to buy tickets for. You will also need enough money in your bank account to cover a £75 deposit for each ticket, plus coach fare if buying a coach ticket. The full ticket price is £373.50 plus £5 booking fee.
Stay the course
Don’t refresh your page, and don’t click off it in frustration or distraction. Breathe deeply.
Pray to a shrine of the Pyramid stage built out of tent poles while wafting the scent from an unflushed toilet across it and chanting the lyrics to Fix You
Ultimately it’s down to luck where you’re placed in the queue, so this might be worth trying.
