There has to be a better way to allocate tickets

[DeanoL]

Yeah ultimately there are only so many tickets, and more than that number of people that want them. The ticket buying process puts people into two groups: Group A get tickets, Group B don't.

Whether you got to the payment page and timed out, were stuck on the holding page for the entire sale, or never even got as far as that, you're in Group B. You didn't get a ticket. You didn't miss out more or less based on how far you actually got. You still missed out. It's bad customer experience for it get part way through and crash for sure, but it's not unfair. There doesn't seem to be a pattern as to who got chucked out on the payment screen, it seems to be as random as who got in in the first place, so it's no more or less fair.

All you can do to increase your chances is have more people trying for you. Yes, in theory that means larger groups have an advantage, but for sure there will be some groups of 6 with just one person trying, and some individuals who have roped it family and friends to help.

The only real extra bias this year was See announcing it had sold out and people knowing to keep trying when others would have taken them and their word and stopped. Is was particularly weird as earlier in the sale See gave the opposite advice and told people to keep trying even if it was showing sold out!

[musky]

4 minutes ago, BigNeil said:

Surely a way of saving the registrations you want to buy for PRIOR to the sale would make most sense?

• Run registration before sale as normal.
• Open the 'group registration' a week before sale, allowing users to enter and lock in the registration numbers/postcodes they want to buy for (See Tickets validate these at this point, rather than doing so when the system is overwhelmed).
• This 'group' of registrations gets a unique ID to copy and paste in, which is done at 9am Sunday when you click 'Buy Tickets'. 
• Each unique ID then joins a queue (only one device using the unique ID can advance into the queue at any one time - if it freezes/times out/loses connection, then someone else can access), and when you get through it takes you straight to the payment/transaction page.

This reduces a manual step when traffic is at its highest, takes away frantically trying to type in six registrations, irons out any issues with wrong numbers/postcodes, and stops people that have given their registration to more than one attempted buyer from locking out any others in a 'group' they might be in.

Wouldn't that just open the door to multiple registrations in exactly the same way as a ballot system? Or am I missing something?

[DeanoL]

7 minutes ago, BigNeil said:

 

• Each unique ID then joins a queue (only one device using the unique ID can advance into the queue at any one time - if it freezes/times out/loses connection, then someone else can access), and when you get through it takes you straight to the payment/transaction page.

A queue system at this scale isn't really feasible. For perspective, we book tickets for The Lion King in Birmingham, that's an 1850 capacity theatre with 75 performances so 138,750 tickets on sale. They had a queuing system and queues were coming in at around 12 hours. We didn't even try to login until midday, three hours after they had been on sale, and got a queue of 8 hours. There are still tickets left now, quite a few. The queue systems you see are designed for servers with far lower capacity to sell tickets over an extended period of time. Using a firm like See means you don't need a queue as the tickets go in 30 minutes anyway.

[cellar]

15 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

A queue system at this scale isn't really feasible. For perspective, we book tickets for The Lion King in Birmingham, that's an 1850 capacity theatre with 75 performances so 138,750 tickets on sale. They had a queuing system and queues were coming in at around 12 hours. We didn't even try to login until midday, three hours after they had been on sale, and got a queue of 8 hours. There are still tickets left now, quite a few. The queue systems you see are designed for servers with far lower capacity to sell tickets over an extended period of time. Using a firm like See means you don't need a queue as the tickets go in 30 minutes anyway.

Thanks for sharing this, definitely does help give some perspective.

[rocks1ar]

3 hours ago, fraybentos1 said:

Letting it refresh every 20 secs is a terrible strategy. Makes you 20 times less likely to get through 

I got a ticket this way. 

[dingbat2]

1 hour ago, maelzoid said:

As a comparison, the London Marathon uses a ballot system.

I applied 15 times before finally getting successful this year. Is this what anybody wants for Glastonbury?

Absolutely, that is the horrible reality of a truly fair/ballot system, if it was absolutely fair then the chances are you would only go one in every five years really, and I am not sure if anyone really wants that. I think Glasto want  Glasto obsessives and regulars to have a slight better chance than anyone else, the regulars and large groups are part of what gives the festival its vibe, I am not sure if the atmosphere would be quite the same if everyone were newbies, and whether those newbies would carry on going, unless they were part of a larger group. I think glasto are OK with the current system, they get a good mix of newbies and regulars

[The Nal]

The system is fair in that its a complete shitshow for everyone.

[Neil]

2 minutes ago, dingbat2 said:

only go one in every five years

if there was an effortless way to get tickets(which a ballot would be) there'd be loads more people in for tickets. and even less chance of a ticket.

[gfa]

the system is a complete mess but it does benefit people who are organised, if it was a ballot / randomised queue nowhere near as many people on here would get tickets.

[efcfanwirral]

2 hours ago, Old_Johno said:

At Shambala you have to present your train ticket on arrival to pick up your tickets, although that’s on trial this year and you could always just buy a ticket from a few stops away on your phone 

 

1 hour ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

Imperfect but yeah can’t think of a better way. And anything which encourages people to travel on public transport instead of in the car, even if a minority find a way to manipulate the system, can only be a good thing. Bikes would obviously be straightforward to check on arrival (you either arrive with a bike or you don’t). 

Only issue with the train thing is you can set up that system and then get hit with strikes two weeks before, or something goes wrong with people's travel options and they have to find an alternative route, and its the people who lose out considering how inflexible the ticketing system is

[dingbat2]

2 minutes ago, Neil said:

if there was an effortless way to get tickets(which a ballot would be) there'd be loads more people in for tickets. and even less chance of a ticket.

That's the big unknown, no-one knows how many people are genuinely trying, or would try if they thought they had a chance of getting a ticket. One in 5 chance equates to 700,000 trying, do you think its even higher than that? I am not sure that demand is much higher than that, there just aren't that many people missing out I don't think reading social media and these forums, appreciating that these forums are full of obsessives who are more likely to be succesful due to their commitment and knowledge of the system and tips for bagging a ticket.

[dmedxb]

1 hour ago, maelzoid said:

As a comparison, the London Marathon uses a ballot system.

I applied 15 times before finally getting successful this year. Is this what anybody wants for Glastonbury?

Agreed, just had my 9th rejection in a row. Horrible system. 

[fraybentos1]

14 minutes ago, rocks1ar said:

I got a ticket this way. 

Yeah I'm not saying it isn't possible i am saying it isnt the best strategy

[Neil]

2 minutes ago, dingbat2 said:

That's the big unknown, no-one knows how many people are genuinely trying, or would try if they thought they had a chance of getting a ticket. One in 5 chance equates to 700,000 trying, do you think its even higher than that? I am not sure that demand is much higher than that, there just aren't that many people missing out I don't think reading social media and these forums, appreciating that these forums are full of obsessives who are more likely to be succesful due to their commitment and knowledge of the system and tips for bagging a ticket.

whatever the system people will try to find a way to game it.

[mike46]

Missed out on tickets this year for the first time in 12 years. The current system isn’t great but it’s the best of a bad bunch.
 

Sometimes things just don’t fall your way. That’s life. It’s sad and we all want to be in those fields next June but there’s a lot of people who would be going for the first time after today so hopefully that spreads some of the Glasto love a bit further back in real life. 
 

Besides, there’s the resale, volunteering and more - where there is a will there’s a way. 

[DeanoL]

6 minutes ago, dingbat2 said:

That's the big unknown, no-one knows how many people are genuinely trying, or would try if they thought they had a chance of getting a ticket. One in 5 chance equates to 700,000 trying, do you think its even higher than that? I am not sure that demand is much higher than that, there just aren't that many people missing out I don't think reading social media and these forums, appreciating that these forums are full of obsessives who are more likely to be succesful due to their commitment and knowledge of the system and tips for bagging a ticket.

Number of people trying is not the number of people wanting tickets. In many cases only one or two people in a group of 6 will actually be trying. Then how many people when you've told "I'm going to Glastonbury" say "I've always wanted to go but it's so hard to get a ticket" "Have you tried?" "No, it's just a lot of effort." All those people would be in the ballot.

[dingbat2]

1 minute ago, Neil said:

whatever the system people will try to find a way to game it.

That's what we are all doing, we all want to improve our chances any way we can to get a ticket over everyone else, no-one really wants a fair system of getting tickets unless they are OK with only going every 5 years, which noone will be, we are all unlitmately selfish as we want to go and go out of our way to load the deck in our favour!

[Beaver89]

Right, that's it, we go old school. Everyone must queue outside Worthy Farm's front door in mid January to get a ticket. One ticket per purchase, one purchase per person. No tents. No chairs. Let's see who REALLY wants it! Imagine it, we could relive the magic of 'The Queue' every year! 😉 

[I am Jon]

14 minutes ago, dingbat2 said:

That's the big unknown, no-one knows how many people are genuinely trying, or would try if they thought they had a chance of getting a ticket. One in 5 chance equates to 700,000 trying, do you think its even higher than that? I am not sure that demand is much higher than that, there just aren't that many people missing out I don't think reading social media and these forums, appreciating that these forums are full of obsessives who are more likely to be succesful due to their commitment and knowledge of the system and tips for bagging a ticket.

Ballot system could open up the festival to huge number of international bucket listers who aren’t part of the obsessive efestivals crowd.      

Always good to have a wide mix of attendees but don’t think it would be the same atmosphere if significantly less festival regulars are there. 

Edited November 6, 2022 by I am Jon

[Beaver89]

In all seriousness I agree that this way while occasionally frustrating is the least worst, most fair method. You've got to really want it which cuts out the casuals and if we look objectively at the process and infrastructure it is infinitely better than even a few years ago. Is it perfect? No. Is it good enough? In spite of raw feelings today, yea, it is actually.

(I got lucky on Thursday and got most of the rest of my Glasto family in this morning so I'm not bitter but I do remember the pain of 2017 and 2019 festivals very well and those that missed out have my fullest sympathy!)

[mcbain55]

59 minutes ago, BigNeil said:

Surely a way of saving the registrations you want to buy for PRIOR to the sale would make most sense?

• Run registration before sale as normal.
• Open the 'group registration' a week before sale, allowing users to enter and lock in the registration numbers/postcodes they want to buy for (See Tickets validate these at this point, rather than doing so when the system is overwhelmed).
• This 'group' of registrations gets a unique ID to copy and paste in, which is done at 9am Sunday when you click 'Buy Tickets'. 
• Each unique ID then joins a queue (only one device using the unique ID can advance into the queue at any one time - if it freezes/times out/loses connection, then someone else can access), and when you get through it takes you straight to the payment/transaction page.

This reduces a manual step when traffic is at its highest, takes away frantically trying to type in six registrations, irons out any issues with wrong numbers/postcodes, and stops people that have given their registration to more than one attempted buyer from locking out any others in a 'group' they might be in.

Love this idea....would be a lot quicker and easier 

[Stokesy10]

Some insane moments this morning. I'm not going but was in the WhatsApp. 18 of 24 got tickets. One of my mates got them about 15 minutes after See announced they were sold out. Another guy about 5 mins after the announcement. Couldn't believe it. He had the details typed in but the page had frozen, kept refreshing and eventually got him to the payment page. Scenes.

[gfa]

Never really thought about it but the current international setup is quite shit isn't it. Anyone who can't get a credit card for whatever reason has to borrow someone elses etc to even access tickets.

[Rose-Colored Boy]

6 minutes ago, Beaver89 said:

You've got to really want it which cuts out the casuals 

Not true at all

[Beaver89]

Just now, Rose-Colored Boy said:

Not true at all

True to an extent actually. I didn't say all of them but compared to a ballot, there can be no set and forget without someone somewhere being prepared and up at 9am on a Sunday and suffer for a while to nab them. A ballot would fundamentally change the nature of the crowd and not in a good way. 

'cuts down the number of casuals', better?