Digital tickets in the future

[brettredmayne]

Do you think Glastonbury will ever move to digital tickets, I would miss having the physical ticket but think it will happen.

Ticketmaster now has QR codes that can't be done by screenshot so the technology is there.

The QR code code have your photo ID on top of it.

Seeing quite a few stories of tickets going missing this year.

Edited June 14, 2023 by brettredmayne

[maelzoid]

1. It's inevitable

2. It will improve things.

[incident]

Yeah, they definitely will at some point. And when they do, it'll make refunds or face value resale a bit more achievable.

When that's likely to happen though, I've got no idea. Obviously a festival with 20 entry points across a several mile stretch of farmland and gates running 24/7 for 5 days (actually more like 9 when you factor in staff arrivals) is a much more difficult proposition than any other implementation to date.

[maelzoid]

10 minutes ago, incident said:

Yeah, they definitely will at some point. And when they do, it'll make refunds or face value resale a bit more achievable.

Imagine a situation where you can throw your ticket back for a 95% refunds, and it goes to someone else on the waiting list, realistically any time up to a week before the event. All achievable.

[Neil]

in the past, glasto were scared of a technology failure leading to chaos at the gates.

[incident]

1 minute ago, maelzoid said:

Imagine a situation where you can throw your ticket back for a 95% refunds, and it goes to someone else on the waiting list, realistically any time up to a week before the event. All achievable.

Not even sure they'll need to put a deadline on it - when they do eventually go down that road (and likely one of the obstacles that's prevented it to date), then they'll need to have all 20ish gates where tickets are scanned connecting to a central database - as long as that can be updated live there's no reason a ticket couldn't be resold even after gates have opened.

[stuartbert two hats]

2 minutes ago, Neil said:

in the past, glasto were scared of a technology failure leading to chaos at the gates.

And that's probably very sensible of them, but over time as the technology becomes more and more robust and more and more useful, eventually there will come a point where moving to digital tickets becomes a no brainer.

[Glastoboy]

3 minutes ago, Neil said:

in the past, glasto were scared of a technology failure leading to chaos at the gates.

I reckon they are right about this. Even the bars struggled last year. 😆

I also think Incident makes a good point. There's a lot of in and out over 5 days.

[incident]

2 minutes ago, Neil said:

in the past, glasto were scared of a technology failure leading to chaos at the gates.

Yep and that's very understandable why given the unique scale of the operation (in a few different ways).

But as the technology is becoming more and more proven, and the comms infrastructure more reliable, pretty soon they're going to hit a tipping point whereby the risk of a failure at the gates is low enough that it's far preferable to the various yearly issues with postal delivery.

[Neil]

2 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

And that's probably very sensible of them, but over time as the technology becomes more and more robust and more and more useful, eventually there will come a point where moving to digital tickets becomes a no brainer.

it also opens up new issues for things they've nailed for the current systems - people scamming their way in, etc.

[Glastoboy]

Perhaps on sale day, they could cover the map in red dots, like theatres do for seats. You have to grab a spot that's not already been purchased. Imagine the carnage.

[gfa]

7 minutes ago, incident said:

Not even sure they'll need to put a deadline on it - when they do eventually go down that road (and likely one of the obstacles that's prevented it to date), then they'll need to have all 20ish gates where tickets are scanned connecting to a central database - as long as that can be updated live there's no reason a ticket couldn't be resold even after gates have opened.

Not really, they could make swaps end 24 hours before opening or something. It would still be a whole lot better than what is now - there's no need to make tickets be possible to resell after gates open tbh

[fred quimby]

6 minutes ago, Glastoboy said:

I reckon they are right about this. Even the bars struggled last year. 😆

I also think Incident makes a good point. There's a lot of in and out over 5 days.

😲

[incident]

1 minute ago, gfa said:

Not really, they could make swaps end 24 hours before opening or something. It would still be a whole lot better than what is now - there's no need to make tickets be possible to resell after gates open tbh

The obvious answer would be - the bloke who falls down a manhole not watching where he's going as he walks to Victoria Coach Station.

Wednesday lunchtime from his hospital bed he realises he's not getting out any time soon, so lists the ticket from his mobile phone allowing some lucky person to have a last minute moment of joy.

[gfa]

4 minutes ago, incident said:

The obvious answer would be - the bloke who falls down a manhole not watching where he's going as he walks to Victoria Coach Station.

Wednesday lunchtime from his hospital bed he realises he's not getting out any time soon, so lists the ticket from his mobile phone allowing some lucky person to have a last minute moment of joy.

Its not worth putting in place a central database system for 20 gates for the sake of about 10 people per year was more my point. No other event does this, why would archaic glasto!

[09matthewsw]

Definitely one day. Probably not within the next 5 festivals imo. Despite the drawbacks of the current system rightly noted above,  it is proven and robust in many ways. I think the festival will try and keep things how they are currently for as long as possible, but eventually See or whoever is looking after ticketing will push for the digital way because it’ll just be how it’s done everywhere else. 

Edited June 14, 2023 by 09matthewsw

[incident]

1 minute ago, gfa said:

Its not worth putting in place a central database system for 20 gates for the sake of about 10 people per year was more my point. No other event does this, why would archaic glasto!

They'd be using a central database system regardless. It's been suggested in the past that the difficulty in doing so reliably on the scale needed is one of the main obstacles.

The example I gave, obviously, won't be an especially common occurrence - but nor would it require anything extra that they wouldn't otherwise be doing.

[maelzoid]

17 minutes ago, fred quimby said:

😲

It strikes me that Philippa’s van has not had much of a mention lately

[Leyrulion]

The technology is there, it'll happen when they're forced to. 

Probably through a combination of a) pressure to clamp down harder on bunk ins and unauthorised ticket transfer and b) a digital solution being cheaper than the current paper system and it's associated admin costs. 

(No idea how much SEE charge but the admin costs on 135,000 special delivery tickets arriving in a 6 week time period and associated customer service is intense.  Fee won't be small)

[stuartbert two hats]

5 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

It strikes me that Philippa’s van has not had much of a mention lately

It was pointed out to us how gross it was, so we stopped.

[LadyP]

The EPO wristbands have included a QR code for the last couple of years so they’re already scanning staff in and out. Seems inevitable tbh but I will miss having a physical ticket, they’re so nice to look at!

[HotChipWillBreakYourLegs]

2 hours ago, brettredmayne said:

Ticketmaster now has QR codes that can't be done by screenshot so the technology is there.

I recently went to a gig with an "animated QR code", supposedly you couldn't get in without it.

The animation was just a colour changing background, so it's actually reliant on the person checking it.

I screenshotted it anyway and got in no problem.

[HotChipWillBreakYourLegs]

46 minutes ago, LadyP said:

The EPO wristbands have included a QR code for the last couple of years so they’re already scanning staff in and out. Seems inevitable tbh but I will miss having a physical ticket, they’re so nice to look at!

I was just trying to remember which festival I was at that had QR code wristbands.  You've just reminded me it was Glasto when I volunteered for Shelter.

Standon Calling had them for cashless purchasing (or maybe it was RFID), can't remember if also used for access.

[gfa]

1 hour ago, Leyrulion said:

The technology is there, it'll happen when they're forced to. 

Probably through a combination of a) pressure to clamp down harder on bunk ins and unauthorised ticket transfer and b) a digital solution being cheaper than the current paper system and it's associated admin costs. 

(No idea how much SEE charge but the admin costs on 135,000 special delivery tickets arriving in a 6 week time period and associated customer service is intense.  Fee won't be small)

Assuming on average 2 go to each address thats almost £400k in postage alone

[Neil]

i doubt see will be keen to switch away from physical tickets, cos they'll have staff and and investment in equipment to do that.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Neil