There has to be a better way to allocate tickets

[Yokel Again]

I can't see a fairer way - it's a lottery, but a lottery in which a lot of hard work and preparation could slightly increase your chances... Sounds fair enough to me.

Based on someone saying you've a 10% chance of a ticket, you're pretty lucky if you've been more than once in 10 years, or got a ticket before 9 yearly fails. 

[clasher]

7 minutes ago, Yokel Again said:

Based on someone saying you've a 10% chance of a ticket, you're pretty lucky if you've been more than once in 10 years, or got a ticket before 9 yearly fails. 

It's 10% if you're the only one trying, which is rarely the case. At least that's how I understood it. 

[Yokel Again]

4 minutes ago, clasher said:

It's 10% if you're the only one trying, which is rarely the case. At least that's how I understood it. 

Aah. Makes sense. 

[Staberinde]

46 minutes ago, Yokel Again said:

I can't see a fairer way - it's a lottery, but a lottery in which a lot of hard work and preparation could slightly increase your chances... Sounds fair enough to me.

Exactly that Yokel. There is about 250 posts in this thread and you've just stated how it is.

I understand when people cry 'it's not fair' probably stems from a disappointing failure on ticket day, and I do sympathise , but I can't for the life of me think of a 'fairer' way.

it is what it is ?

[Penrhos]

Controversial - but why not drop the number of tickets you buy to 2 or 4 per transaction like in the resale - that way there'd be more bites at the tickets in the pot and if you wanted 12 tickets you'd need to get to the booking page 3 times (which means potentially someone else might get in and get their ticket(s).

It's especially frustrating if you only need a pair and people are hoovering up 6 at a time possibly for randoms just to get around the system.

[Staberinde]

44 minutes ago, clasher said:

It's 10% if you're the only one trying, which is rarely the case. At least that's how I understood it. 

10% is a 1 in ten chance. Just for conversational reasons I read somewhere you have a 1 in 18 chance based on Applicant to ticket, quote me or not, I can't remember where but I did read it somewhere.

Anyway, my point is odds and statistics can only be utilised by Betting Companies and Insurance Companies, who have 10 of thousands of customers. When they do their sums right and and all the bets or claims have been paid out, the companies still make a profit.

Of course we know appling odds to an individual means nothing, its all chance. One person could try for 20 years every year and not get a ticket page open, while another could buy four groups of tickets in his first year.

Just food for thought

[Staberinde]

1 minute ago, Penrhos said:

Controversial - but why not drop the number of tickets you buy to 2 or 4 per transaction like in the resale - that way there'd be more bites at the tickets in the pot and if you wanted 12 tickets you'd need to get to the booking page 3 times (which means potentially someone else might get in and get their ticket(s)

That won't change the chances of any individual getting through, but I like the idea because the tickets will take longer to sell out giving you the perception as time goes by that you're still in with a chance. I think -as you say - it may make the guy after just 2 or maybe 4 tickets have more of a chance ?

[DeanoL]

3 hours ago, GlastoMoonGirl said:

Hi there, 

I am wondering if anybody could enlighten me... How come there are people who manage to get tickets every single year without fail? I mean does the ticket system keep track of them or something and go on past sales or is this just purely coincidental? I know a group of people and they have managed to get tickets every single year for going on 13 years now... I mean they even laugh about how easy it is?! I just don't understand..  I mean I always assumed it was just luck of the draw who manages to get through.. 

The real factor here is that those people that have been going 10+ festivals on the trot - that's misleading as it's not been as difficult to get tickets all those years as it is now. Up until about 2016 I always said if you really wanted to go, you'd be able to get a ticket. Main sale, resale, coach sales, and the unannounced resales  - if you kept on top of it you could get tickets. But the last three festivals it's got seemingly much harder. It's a combination of demanding going, the unannounced resales going away, and, frankly, the general public working out that if you want a ticket you need to do the things that people on here have been doing for years: get up on time, have the page ready to go, have everyone in your group trying, keep refreshing, don't give up. Nothing complicated but until relatively recently most people didn't do all that.

So basically, if you got tickets for 2017, 2019 and next year, you've been really lucky. But that's like say, rolling a 6 on a die three times in a row. It's lucky, but it's certainly possible. And plenty of people are going to do it. That those people also got tickets to the ten festivals  before that - that's not so much luck that was just persistence and preparation. It's only the past few years it's got really hard. If demand stays high I would be there won't be many people who first went in 2017 able to say they've been the past ten years in 2027.

[uscore]

This whole "more popular due to 50th anniversary" thing;  does anyone believe that sales for 2021 are going to be noticably easier?

[DeanoL]

Anecdotally, have certainly seen here and with our group plenty of people who have been going for a long time seeing 2020 as an obvious stopping point.

[pentura]

17 minutes ago, uscore said:

This whole "more popular due to 50th anniversary" thing;  does anyone believe that sales for 2021 are going to be noticably easier?

Could be the opposite. Could be a case of the 50th being such a big event that people will hear from their mates, see it on TV / social media etc and will want to go the following year. 

[Staberinde]

18 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Anecdotally, have certainly seen here and with our group plenty of people who have been going for a long time seeing 2020 as an obvious stopping point.

My brother is 61 he's been going since the 70's and hasnt been for a few years. As it's Glasto 50th he just wanted one last gig, I got him his ticket ?

[uscore]

I know a couple of people who've said they'd stop at the 50th.  However, it's easy to say that when the 50th is a festival or 2 away. When the 50th is done and dusted how easy will it really be to walk away?  And if 2022 is going to be a fallow year then that might put added pressure on 2021 too.

[incident]

Just now, uscore said:

And if 2022 is going to be a fallow year then that might put added pressure on 2021 too.

It's been all but confirmed that the fallow is 2024.

[doogie]

36 minutes ago, uscore said:

This whole "more popular due to 50th anniversary" thing;  does anyone believe that sales for 2021 are going to be noticably easier?

Not unless 2020 is a 2007-style mudbath

As long as it looks amazing on TV and social media, I can't see its popularity diminishing any time soon

[ogriff]

I've got tickets every year I've tried (2007-2020 bar 2008), but have only got them myself 4 times.  Never had a year when any of our core group have failed either. Every other time has been down to some combination of being part of a larger group, military style planning, persistence and luck.

(Aside from that one controversial-ish year where tipi dwellers from the previous year got an early sale link. Still feel a bit guilty about using that)

[ogriff]

33 minutes ago, uscore said:

I know a couple of people who've said they'd stop at the 50th.  However, it's easy to say that when the 50th is a festival or 2 away. When the 50th is done and dusted how easy will it really be to walk away?  And if 2022 is going to be a fallow year then that might put added pressure on 2021 too.

I had planned to stop when I had kids. 2013 was my last G for a while. So was 2014. And 15, and 16, 17 and 19. I've stopped pretending anymore!

[Penrhos]

I was only going to go once to tick Glastonbury off my bucket list and I got hooked, I've managed every year since 2010 so am gutted I haven't got tickets for 2020 - I will hit the resales but over half of our group have called it quits.

With a few festivals being cancelled it's put extra pressure on the remaining ones, I think the biggest problem with getting Glasto tickets is you're competing with some people who just want the all-night parties down SE corner and don't bother with anything else.

If other EDM/dance orientated festivals got an all-night license would the demand decrease - hell yeah.

I've been to loads of other festivals and most are shut by midnight, leaving that "I wish I was at Glastonbury" as I want to party feeling.

[squirrelarmy]

I’ve been trying to think of how to make the unpopular ballot system work. 
 

First step is clear all registrations each year. You won’t have 2.4 million names in the hat each time. 
 

Next step to combat multiple registrations is to link your Festival ID number to a fixed number that is unique to yourself that you can’t change. Could be passport or probably even NI number or equivalent for overseas visitors. If they went the NI route you’d obviously have to make entry free for under 16s. I’m not sure if this is even possible though with GDPR regs so could be a non starter from the off. 
 

When the October ballot is drawn you then have a week to confirm your purchase with a deposit if you’re selected. If you don’t confirm then your ticket goes back into a pot along with all the remaining ID’s (without new registrations) and a second draw is held and so on until all tickets all allocated. 
 

When April comes around you then have the same choice whether to confirm your ticket again by paying the balance. 
 

You can then have a completely fresh process for the resales by wiping all registrations again and repeating the above steps until all tickets are sold. 
 

It will be completely down to luck similar to now whether you get a ticket or not but you’ll have multiple attempts at getting a ticket and will only be competing against fresh registrations and not millions each time. 

[lukethekid]

4 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

I’ve been trying to think of how to make the unpopular ballot system work. 
 

First step is clear all registrations each year. You won’t have 2.4 million names in the hat each time. 
 

Next step to combat multiple registrations is to link your Festival ID number to a fixed number that is unique to yourself that you can’t change. Could be passport or probably even NI number or equivalent for overseas visitors. If they went the NI route you’d obviously have to make entry free for under 16s. I’m not sure if this is even possible though with GDPR regs so could be a non starter from the off. 
 

When the October ballot is drawn you then have a week to confirm your purchase with a deposit if you’re selected. If you don’t confirm then your ticket goes back into a pot along with all the remaining ID’s (without new registrations) and a second draw is held and so on until all tickets all allocated. 
 

When April comes around you then have the same choice whether to confirm your ticket again by paying the balance. 
 

You can then have a completely fresh process for the resales by wiping all registrations again and repeating the above steps until all tickets are sold. 
 

It will be completely down to luck similar to now whether you get a ticket or not but you’ll have multiple attempts at getting a ticket and will only be competing against fresh registrations and not millions each time. 

You’d have multiple people from each group missing out though. It wouldn’t be the same if say a group of 6 and only 2 got tickets. It would lose the togetherness feel of the festival because it wouldn’t be whole groups that miss out it would be a mass amount of individuals missing from every group. 

Just stick to the way it is done now. There’s a lot of luck involved in securing tickets but then there is also the fact that the more determined you are the more chance you have.

[Steel city camper]

On 10/7/2019 at 11:11 AM, paulshane said:

just a coincedence, it really is just luck of the draw, theres no secret, internet sppeds dont matter, you just have to be lucky enough to press F5 at the same time a booking slot appears

 

Did that on Sunday and still didn't get a ticket and this was at 9.07 , still very bitter now with the fact that I did the supposed hard part but couldn't get any further than that ,would be easier to take if I'd not had the reg page up

[maelzoid]

For anyone still clinging on to the idea that a ballot would be better, I just got my email from London Marathon.

For the 13th year running I have not got a place in the forthcoming race.

457,861 people applied.

That's for a 26-mile race. What do you think the numbers would be like for the world's greatest festival?

[The Red Telephone]

Tickets will definitely become easier to buy for 2021 - the Variety Bazaar starts that year and will take some of the pressure off the main sale.

[The Red Telephone]

34 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

For anyone still clinging on to the idea that a ballot would be better, I just got my email from London Marathon.

For the 13th year running I have not got a place in the forthcoming race.

457,861 people applied.

That's for a 26-mile race. What do you think the numbers would be like for the world's greatest festival?

Out of curiosity are you only allowed to apply for yourself, and can you apply for a partner/ friend at the same time? And do you have to pay the entry fee immediately if/when successful?

[Old_Johno]

What if you could only buy two tickets at once? You and your bestie. Then if all the big groups don’t get through it’s a proper gamble on the resale as you’d have no chance of getting the deposit back after that if all 20 of your mates weren’t going. 

Ticket sale would take ages though. Not fair to people with young children that aren’t old enough to be left alone, but are too old for free ones.