Cost of Living and Glastonbury

[gfa]

On the topic of phones, look at the opening paragraph to this article on the BBC and then the comments

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63798292

Edited December 2, 2022 by gfa

[clarkete]

29 minutes ago, gfa said:

On the topic of phones, look at the opening paragraph to this article on the BBC and then the comments

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63798292

HYS makes the grumpiest efester seem like a bubbly laugh a minute scamp. 

[fred quimby]

On 12/1/2022 at 2:46 PM, Skip997 said:

Very strange behaviour.

I use my phone for meeting up, although that's not often necessary, I know where a lot of my mates will be during daylight hours and we tend to go to the same stages/areas/crew bars at night.

Thing is we are old and never had phones when we first went. If all this modern stuff was around when we went we would probably doing exactly the same.

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, fred quimby said:

Thing is we are old and never had phones when we first went. If all this modern stuff was around when we went we would probably doing exactly the same.

True

[Skip997]

Thought I just bump this to see how people are feeling about the cost of going these days.

[stuie]

1 minute ago, Skip997 said:

Thought I just bump this to see how people are feeling about the cost of going these days.

Well I'm on record (in this thread I think) saying that I thought Glasto might have problems this year due to the cost and the financial landscape out there.  I expected it to take longer to sell out. 

Turns out, everyone is cushty.

I know that some people are really struggling right now, it's just difficult to see the signs and translate this into the real world.  Anecdotally, we went to 6 restaurants in the city trying to get a table for Sunday roast yesterday - no spaces anywhere.  Shopping centre car park rammed as ever! 

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, stuie said:

Anecdotally, we went to 6 restaurants in the city trying to get a table for Sunday roast yesterday - no spaces anywhere.  Shopping centre car park rammed as ever! 

It's totally weird.

I've no idea how people afford rent and utility bills, never mind meals out.

As for Glastonbury???

Must all be on credit

[balti-pie]

If i wasn't volunteering, i absolutely couldn't afford to go. £350 for a ticket, £55 for parking, and diesel etc would be another £100 odd, beers/food etc easily another £500 on top of that - i just plain don't have a grand for a holiday. 

TBF volunteering will still come in at about £3-£400 all told for the week, and as i've got all my camping gear i don't have to shell out for any of that thankfully - i can do it as cheap as can be realistically achieved. OK i could spend less on nice food etc but i do like having double dinner 😆 particularly on shift days, i've earnt it 

[Chicken Bob]

20 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Thought I just bump this to see how people are feeling about the cost of going these days.

Cost of living doesnt affect me. I’m loaded. 

[Jacko45]

9 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

It's totally weird.

I've no idea how people afford rent and utility bills, never mind meals out.

As for Glastonbury???

Must all be on credit

 

Well I suppose it entirely depends on individuals situations, for example we've got a small mortgage, both earning 40k+ and no kids.

So even with bills we've luckily got a fair bit of disposable income. 

We share a Car (Nothing flashy) that's a small monthly payment etc. 

Like anyone though we noticed the pinch with increase in energy bills etc, but just tried to act accordingly. 

 

[Crazyfool01]

14 minutes ago, stuie said:

Well I'm on record (in this thread I think) saying that I thought Glasto might have problems this year due to the cost and the financial landscape out there.  I expected it to take longer to sell out. 

Turns out, everyone is cushty.

I know that some people are really struggling right now, it's just difficult to see the signs and translate this into the real world.  Anecdotally, we went to 6 restaurants in the city trying to get a table for Sunday roast yesterday - no spaces anywhere.  Shopping centre car park rammed as ever! 

also got this wrong it appears ...... seems people can afford the increases and still do Glastonbury or that demand is so high its doesn't seemed to have made a dent ,  maybe cutbacks have gone in other things 

[IBCanon]

First time Glastonbury 2024… how much does it cost approx a meal? And the booze? Is mostly cash or cashless payments? Cheers!

[dotdash79]

People are sacrificing the lower stuff to enjoy the bigger events and activities. People have money but they are prioritising things. 

[efcfanwirral]

24 minutes ago, stuie said:

Well I'm on record (in this thread I think) saying that I thought Glasto might have problems this year due to the cost and the financial landscape out there.  I expected it to take longer to sell out. 

Turns out, everyone is cushty.

I know that some people are really struggling right now, it's just difficult to see the signs and translate this into the real world.  Anecdotally, we went to 6 restaurants in the city trying to get a table for Sunday roast yesterday - no spaces anywhere.  Shopping centre car park rammed as ever! 

Black Friday weekend may have had an impact there. Liverpool City Centre was mental on Saturday, I'm glad I was only there for a couple of drinks and could avoid the shops! 

On Glastonbury I think the deposit helps, and I guess some people get money for Christmas/birthdays etc that might make it easier to pay if off in April. As with last year we'll see at resale time.

[Jacko45]

Just now, IBCanon said:

First time Glastonbury 2024… how much does it cost approx a meal? And the booze? Is mostly cash or cashless payments? Cheers!

 

The food options are genuinely endless mate, you can spend £5 up to £17 quid for a meal. 

There is an initiative on certain stalls site-wide that offer £5 meals or there was last year, I found that a little hit and miss, some you'd get a really good portion, others abit of a piss-take. 

Everyone has their different ways - but we'd make brekky at camp then have a snack round lunch (share something) then main meal on the evening, so it wasn't insanely pricy. 

Beers from memory were about £6/£6.50 a pint, again we'd chuck loads of cans in a rucksack each for the day, with a decent cool bag inside a rucksack they'd last until we ran out. I'd only have 2/3 pints a day from the vendors. 

[stuie]

2 minutes ago, IBCanon said:

First time Glastonbury 2024… how much does it cost approx a meal? And the booze? Is mostly cash or cashless payments? Cheers!

Food £10-15 for a good meal. 

Beers £6/7

Cash or card is fine most places. 

[gooner1990]

31 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

It's totally weird.

I've no idea how people afford rent and utility bills, never mind meals out.

As for Glastonbury???

Must all be on credit

Depends on the clientele the festival is attracting Skip. 😉 

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Depends on the clientele the festival is attracting Skip. 😉 

Don't get me started.

Bring back special brew and dogs on strings

[balti-pie]

1 minute ago, Skip997 said:

Don't get me started.

Bring back special brew and dogs on strings

Its all barrel-aged imperial stouts and trained therapy squirrels now tbf 

 

(i would absolutely keep a therapy squirrel if i could get one, without a doubt) 

[DeanoL]

55 minutes ago, stuie said:

Well I'm on record (in this thread I think) saying that I thought Glasto might have problems this year due to the cost and the financial landscape out there.  I expected it to take longer to sell out. 

Yeah likewise, got it wrong. Also expected the ticket price to go up a bit more than it did (less than inflation, in the end).

The reality is where the cost of living crisis is truly hitting though is people who couldn't afford to even dream about the festival in the first place. While I can *sort of* feel it, what's led to me going to fewer gigs is the price of gigs going up so much (well above what other stuff has), rather than having less money because the weekly shop is 20% more.

[09matthewsw]

39 minutes ago, dotdash79 said:

People are sacrificing the lower stuff to enjoy the bigger events and activities. People have money but they are prioritising things. 

This. Me and my partner hardly ever eat out these days and have had to make cuts across the board. Glastonbury will be our main “holiday” next summer as it was last summer, other things have had to be cut. 
One consequence of it all is that this year was probably the least worried I’ve been about getting tickets, because for us if we missed out we would’ve had a nice amount of money to try something new with and that would’ve been okay. I chose to let the ticket gods decide and we’re off to Glastonbury again but so long as the COL situation is as it is I won’t be overly worried on the prospect of missing out and having to take a relaxing holiday somewhere instead 😂

[maelzoid]

1 hour ago, IBCanon said:

First time Glastonbury 2024… how much does it cost approx a meal? And the booze? Is mostly cash or cashless payments? Cheers!

The co-op supermarket is also a very affordable option. Their meal is alright - 6 quid I think it was. But you can also get enough for breakfast and even supper there, with a bit of planning and the right gear.

I am a big fan of bringing all my breakfasts in with me, but that's as much to do with finding and queuing for food first thing as a cash-saving exercise.

But it all helps, and its far easier to do at Glastonbury compared to many other fests that don't have  a supermarket.

[Alvoram]

People always have and always well spend more money in certain sectors of the UK leisure industry during times of economic downturn. I've done a lot of research on this revolving around theme parks. During past economic issues, such as recessions etc, Alton Towers, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and others have all enjoyed their best years. This has been attributed to people choosing to do things in the UK rather than have expensive holidays abroad.  

We don't have the figures yet, but this seems to be happening again. With much bigger queues at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park last year, and Merlin Entertainments seemingly willing to make massive investments into all of their UK parks over the next 2 years. (Thorpe is getting the UK's biggest and fastest coaster ever, Chessington just got a huge (for them) new coaster, Alton Towers has had Nemesis completely rebuilt for next year, is getting several new flat rides for next year and another coaster will begin construction next year!)   

I wonder if this crosses over to Festivals too? 

[gigpusher]

I think all normal people (as in not loaded millionaires) are feeling the pinch but it's just where people decide to cut back that differs from person to person.

You have to remember some people previously had a lot of disposable income, now they'll have less but still some. There are people on these forums who frequently went to 3-4 festivals a year maybe now they are only going to 2. I always thought Glastonbury will be the last to feel the pinch because they may well be expensive for food and drink but they give people the option to be able to bring their own, the most varied line up means that it's a good option to cover lots of different genres.

Also people may cut back on foreign holidays and use Glastonbury as one of their holidays.

I know I personally have tightened my belt in lots of other areas to protect my ability to go to Glastonbury from changing internet provider, to being careful with electricity and gas, introducing a gig ticket price limit, buying less vinyl, not spending much on clothes etc.

[stuie]

9 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

We don't have the figures yet, but this seems to be happening again. With much bigger queues at Alton Towers and Thorpe Park last year, and Merlin Entertainments seemingly willing to make massive investments into all of their UK parks over the next 2 years. (Thorpe is getting the UK's biggest and fastest coaster ever, Chessington just got a huge (for them) new coaster, Alton Towers has had Nemesis completely rebuilt for next year, is getting several new flat rides for next year and another coaster will begin construction next year!)   

I wonder if this crosses over to Festivals too? 

Getting a bit carried away there mate.  🙂 

In general, I think it does apply to festivals too but everyone's different.  I'd skip my holiday abroad before I cut out any festivals but that doesn't apply to everyone.  Some people who do multiple festivals per year may cut back on one or two of them.  We're already aware of several high profile cancellations to the festival calendar next year so I think they are questioning if the demand will be there.