Reduction of attendees vs cost of ticket

[Colorblindjames]

25 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

 

After Cyndi Lauper on the Saturday our small group went to the T&C for a couple of hours....it was VERY quiet, we spent around an hour in the Astrolabe tent and there couldn't have been more than 25 people in there.....

Yes I’m wondering if they could tweak the licensing somehow to allow use of the tents after dark for some of the dj acts.  

[Spindles]

1 hour ago, MEGABOWL said:

A) clamping down on those getting in for free. Might mean a move to a QR Code solution among other things. This is important.

My guess is that before too long it's going to be QR bands all round.

[stuie]

6 minutes ago, Spindles said:

My guess is that before too long it's going to be QR bands all round.

it was supposed to be expanded to everyone in 2020, before Covid. Seems they are scared of taking the plunge and putting the reliance on the tech. 

[DeanoL]

13 hours ago, AdrianH said:

People will pay whatever I think is the problem with Glastonbury - it's such a unique experience that it'd have to get to something ridiculous to reduce attendees. 

 

I definitely do think they've got a problem though now - the SE corner is like queuing for a ride at Alton Towers without the payoff as by the time you get in, you just want to get out of it as quickly as possible. 

 

Maybe they could sell Fastpasses!

I'm being a bit facetious but it's the one part of the festival with controlled entry so it's the one part you *could* upcharge. Am aware NYC Downlow already do. 
 

[Nobody Interesting]

10 minutes ago, Spindles said:

My guess is that before too long it's going to be QR bands all round.

 

2 minutes ago, stuie said:

it was supposed to be expanded to everyone in 2020, before Covid. Seems they are scared of taking the plunge and putting the reliance on the tech. 

 

They need to make sure it works properly first - my wife, and several mother people, suddenly found their QR codes 'disabled' when trying to exit on Friday night at Gate C.

45 mins later we were allowed out and to go and sort at the inquiries hut the next morning. That took the best part of 3 hours and only got done cos of the 2 Gate C Managers. The IT dept kept  resetting the code but it kept immediatley going back to disabled again.

At the end they agreed that when coming in and out we had to ask for them and they woudl wave us through. It was a reall ballache that nobody seemed to have a clue how to fix.

[gfa]

Everyone on here would happily pay £400 (realistically it will be probably £370-375 next year anyway based on recent price rises).

 

It would need to be a significant decrease with current booking attitude to make much difference (25k at least). They just need to book acts on more appropriate stages and the current crowd issues would resolve themselves, with current attendance figures.

 

IE put bigger DJ acts on at headliner time and not at 1:45 like bicep this year. Four Tet was fine last year because he was scheduled appropriately on IICON

Edited July 4 by gfa

[gfa]

3 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Maybe they could sell Fastpasses!

I'm being a bit facetious but it's the one part of the festival with controlled entry so it's the one part you *could* upcharge. Am aware NYC Downlow already do. 
 

Don't even go there.

 

NYC Downlow is a few quid for charity - its not really upcharge, its a nominal amount really

[DeanoL]

2 hours ago, stuie said:

The whole show relies on people doing things for tickets.  If you remove that, you're looking at a massive ticket price increase or financial failure. 

 

Medical staff, doctors, bar staff, gate staff, stewards, site decorators, bands, DJ's, circus performers, street artists, bin painters, litter pickers, recycling centre ops and so on. 

 

The event relies on goodwill to function.  

Plus it's an open site. So if someone needs to be onsite at all during the festival, they need to have a ticket. It's not like you can bus an artist to Croissant Neuf to play a set, then bus them back off site again.

 

1 hour ago, gooner1990 said:

 

After Cyndi Lauper on the Saturday our small group went to the T&C for a couple of hours....it was VERY quiet, we spent around an hour in the Astrolabe tent and there couldn't have been more than 25 people in there.....

While there is some good stuff on there, there's also the same stuff they put on year in, year out and to be quite frank, some quite mediocre stuff. Astrolabe I find very hit and miss. Cabaret is similar, but most acts only doing 20 minutes.

 

They've put on some larger acts in the former that really draw a crowd but tend to do that on the Thursday now - Jonathan Pie, Dom Joly. 

 

I do think they'd benefit from getting some proper marquee events on at all those tents. Get a really great theatre group on to do a modern play that's making waves in the West End or such (English, Buddha of Suburbia, etc) and like, really push that in the publicity, run it at 7pm, make it an event. 

 

The circus tent actually do this, they have a big, popular, accessible circus group (Fantasia/Vulgar) that do full shows which are brilliant, but they don't ever make that clear. They don't say "these are our circus headliners". And so instead sometimes you might go there for an hour and just catch some arty acrobatics which is... fine. But not the most exciting.

 

Cabaret tent could host actual full touring shows - yes, they'd have to actually pay the acts for that, but then you could really market it. So say Nish Kumar is doing the same show you can see at your local art centre but it's £30 there and free at Glastonbury.

[Skip997]

16 hours ago, Superscally said:

I would...but would it stop the jumpers and does it skew the festival further towards the more money than sense brigade who are filling the likes of Festibell, Camp Kerala and the likes? 

Would make little difference, we’re already there re more money than sense brigade

[Monty Pythagoras]

Scheduling is the issue, not capacity.

You could reduce the capacity by 10k and not lose a single person who wanted to see Bicep etc.

 

Plan and schedule better, and as a punter, learn the routes around site to avoid queues 😶

[Monty Pythagoras]

The app could be updated to show live push updates of areas being shut down before they happen, view how many people are planning to go to a performance.

[clarkete]

4 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

 

I think I noticed this way back in 2017. I remember walking though Green Futures, Healing Field, Craft Field etc during the day on Friday and Saturday and both times they were dead. Like, maybe fifty people there. I couldn't believe it, but then again, I only wandered around for an hour and a lot of the massage or healing stuff was booked out already.

 

I went to the Green Fields and Craft Field on a handful of occasions - about three times to get some grub and another as it was a nice sanctuary for a less frenetic stroll.   For those fields there are still a decent quantity of folks visiting - the food stalls up there were doing very well. 

 

[Neil]

16 hours ago, Johnnyseven said:

 

Then watch as the local landowners refuse to hire their fields out to the festival.

pretty sure there's a contract or formal agreement for these, which would mean if the festival wants to change a part of it the whole thing becomes void; and landowners would insist on renegotiation.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

1 hour ago, clarkete said:

 

I went to the Green Fields and Craft Field on a handful of occasions - about three times to get some grub and another as it was a nice sanctuary for a less frenetic stroll.   For those fields there are still a decent quantity of folks visiting - the food stalls up there were doing very well. 

 

 

Yeah, definitely. Last year I think I spent more time away from the main 6 areas than ever before and it was brilliant. 

[themunn]

6 hours ago, gigpusher said:

I was thinking more about all the theatre and circus acts etc as well. There's some cracking things in those tents but nobody really knows what they are. I follow the theatre and circus accounts so have seen a lot more of their promos but maybe Glastonbury needs to be promoting them more. I said to a few people this year that whenever I don't know what to do I head to theatre and circus and more than one said that they must go there some time and only one of those was a first timer.

 

In previous years you could wander into those fields and still make time to see your favourite large act no matter what stage they were playing on. If the future going to be that you need to get to each stage an hour before the act is on to avoid stage closures/route closures/crushes then obviously the things that people previously dipped in and out of will suffer reduced footfall the most. 

 

This is the first year where I really felt like I didn't do very much of that wandering at all - to be fair it was the latest we ever arrived on Wednesday, and with Skream & Benga at 6pm being one of three non-negotiable acts over the entire weekend, my usual Wednesday/Thursday bimble was cut into, but even still, on Friday once I saw West Holts was closed we didn't bother heading over that way at all as figured there would be one way in operation all nearby so that was another day we didn't go anywhere near it. By Saturday Sunday we weren't risking anything, which is very unlike our typical Glasto go-with-the-flow ethos

 

 

Edited July 4 by themunn

[stuie]

13 minutes ago, themunn said:

This is the first year where I really felt like I didn't do very much of that wandering at all - to be fair it was the latest we ever arrived on Wednesday, and with Skream & Benga at 6pm being one of three non-negotiable acts over the entire weekend, my usual Wednesday/Thursday bimble was cut into, but even still, on Friday once I saw West Holts was closed we didn't bother heading over that way at all as figured there would be one way in operation all nearby so that was another day we didn't go anywhere near it. By Saturday Sunday we weren't risking anything, which is very unlike our typical Glasto go-with-the-flow ethos

 

It was on our must see list too but we left after 15 minutes due to the bass bleed from the soundsystem stage next door.  Gutted! 

[philipsteak]

4 hours ago, Nobody Interesting said:

 

 

They need to make sure it works properly first - my wife, and several mother people, suddenly found their QR codes 'disabled' when trying to exit on Friday night at Gate C.

45 mins later we were allowed out and to go and sort at the inquiries hut the next morning. That took the best part of 3 hours and only got done cos of the 2 Gate C Managers. The IT dept kept  resetting the code but it kept immediatley going back to disabled again.

At the end they agreed that when coming in and out we had to ask for them and they woudl wave us through. It was a reall ballache that nobody seemed to have a clue how to fix.

 

Was just about to ask stuie if the system was more reliable this year as there were definitely times where it was a problem the previous two years but I guess you've just answered that.

[brettredmayne]

I have seen festivals offer things on nights with headphones. Could this be a way to open up the main stages on the Thursday and mean sound levels won't change?

[Memory Man]

6 hours ago, gigpusher said:

Which is my point exactly the site can cope with the number of people if people are willing to spread out. No matter how much you reduce the capacity it will still be busy if everyone goes to one stage. We saw the excellent Mawaan Rizwan play to a one third full tent at best and he's a reasonably famous name and BAFTA award winner.

Yeah thats an odd one!

 

Mawaan and nish after him they both kind of clashed with confidence man and sugababes who both filled their fields so not too surprising it was quiet

 

there was a lot to see on that friday

[northernangel]

19 hours ago, august1 said:

its not about reducing absolute numbers you need more people who will spend all their time in T+C, Green futures, healing fields, avalon, chilling at stone circle and less people chasing nostalgia and dance acts around the site 

 

If you want that then don't book nostalgia and dance acts to chase. You can't blame ticket buyers for chasing what they want to see.

20 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

I was musing this just now about the amount of people on site and reading people's comments of near accidents or crushes. Especially, the case of Bicep shocked me a little that they actually had to lower the volume mid-set and ask people to take steps backwards.

 

Others have said the SEC is at saturation point and becomes gridlocked. Day time sets of Barry Can't Swim and Sugababes have resulted in areas being closed off - something that used to only happen once a festival, now happens twice on the same day. Also read that Avalon has lost its sparkle a little due to sending people elsewhere...

 

Would you be happy to pay a bit more per person if it meant reducing the people on site by 15k people?

 

My working was based on the ticket price being 355 quid x 138k tickets sold = £49m generated.

 

You could get the same amount of money generated by charging £400 a ticket, which would lead to only 122.5k people on site. At least from paying tickets, nevermind the crew, volunteers, performers etc which I think stands at around 72k people on site.

 

Just a curiosity more than anything. I know Michael Eavis and Emily Eavis want to have as many people on site as possible to spread the love of the festival to the max, but what do you think?

 

Would it not be 145? 65k are workers and 210k is the attendance so 128k instead would be 18k less capacity. I think it needs to be down 20k imo

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

13 minutes ago, northernangel said:

 

If you want that then don't book nostalgia and dance acts to chase. You can't blame ticket buyers for chasing what they want to see.

 

Would it not be 145? 65k are workers and 210k is the attendance so 128k instead would be 18k less capacity. I think it needs to be down 20k imo

 

I don't know the exact number but I got my figures from Somerset Live, prob not the most reliable, but they said 139k tickets, 69k crew and performers etc or something like that.

[Pinhead]

16 hours ago, incident said:

 

That's a very dangerous road to go down. Mainly because Glastonbury needs - and for the most part, uses - the absolute leaders in the respective fields - both for the quality and for the scale. Experience does matter here if the festival is going to keep running smoothly.

 

I'm not convinced how well it would work if, for example:

- The Oxfam stewarding operation was replaced by Wicked (I've worked for both, and Oxfam are infinitely more professional when it comes to delivering a service)

- Martin Audio were replaced by Funktion One (who had a shot at the Pyramid in the past, to negative reviews)

- Sunbelt Rentals (who via various name changes, takeovers, and mergers can be traced back to Eve Trakway) were replaced by some combination of companies (because I can't find an alternative company that even offers everything they provide)

- Serious Stages were replaced by various companies (likewise)

- Aggreko were replaced by HSS Hire

 

I think it's likely that GFL will already do an element of tendering to keep the current suppliers "honest", but going for cheapest quote would be an exceptionally bad idea if the company couldn't deliver as needed. There's a good reason that most core suppliers including all of the above except MA haven't changed in 20+ years. Many of the "alternatives" in the categories above and any others wouldn't even be able to scale to cover Glastonbury.

You are of course quite right in what you say here, and there is a risk. There is a risk with lock in though here like there is with, say NHS contractors who openly rip off the organisation knowing no due diligence will be done. Like all things, care and balance need to be achieved and I'm sure they could do it.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

I've seen a few ppl mention QR codes for wristbands? Is that for the car parks or caravan fields or something?

[Pinhead]

9 hours ago, Johnnyseven said:

 

Sounds like a race to the bottom, worked well for rail operators.

Ha yeah I get that. But they were handed contracts cos the people making the decisions had a dodgy vested interest in certain crap operators getting the franchises, bypassing proper vetting process

[Pinhead]

8 hours ago, Memory Man said:

That assumes they can afford closer to market price which it feels clear they cant, otherwise they wouldnt have done the huge increases in non public tickets to pay for stuff in the first place

 

Eg it feels like vodafone have control of an insane number of tickets. I would guess in the high hundreds or maybe even 1000

They needed them and their infra to be able to run the app around the site reliably so handed them a good number to save costs I'd think.