Ticket tips and Tricks for 2025 festival

[Crazyfool01]

31 minutes ago, gsp8181 said:

 

It depends on how much hes poked around websites. But I can see a lot of posts where people say 'I got tickets on this banged up ipad when I was trying on my brand new PC all morning'

 

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that Queue-It can be set up not as random as it claims. Some people can have priority

 

 

so who knows if all the bots are silently dumped at the back of the queue

 

I personally will not be opening the glastonbury website until pretty soon before the sale to minimise my digital fingerprint on that website (i.e. the filters might not be set up correctly and might block people a la oasis if you've had the page open all day and it's got used to you doing nothing and then you suddenly move around like a mad man, but it's paranoia)

Just to say thanks if people haven’t already some quality info from what I can make out although some bits well beyond my grasp . This may well result in some people on here getting tickets Much appreciated 

[Ayrshire Chris]

7 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

 

Unfortunately when it comes to 'typical users' what you're describing is probably accurate for most people trying for a ticket these days.

 

G2025 is going to be full of Nanna's isn't it?

[ChewieDC]

2 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Popular opinion is that different browsers give different Queue-id's, but that's something to be confirmed on Thursday.  It is likely though that Edge and Chrome will give you the same queue position as they share the same underlying architecture.

 

Same with Incognito tabs at present....

 

 

It would be great if SeeTickets had some sale with queue implemented beforehand to test it out. Maybe Fridays Kaiser Chiefs? Dont know how popular they are now 🙂

[Benjsh]

Nobody has the devine right to be at every festival. Glastonbury shouldn't be for the same folk year after year after year either. 

 

Been 5 times in the 20 odd years I have been trying for tickets therefore missed more than I have attended. Wouldn't change a thing either. Been able to visit some truly incredible festivals in Europe as a Glasto alternative in some of these years and had some of the best times in my life. 

 

Glasto ticket blues don't stress me out anymore at this stage. If I get them then great. If I don't I soon get over it and plan something else. 

 

I'm all for this new system (if it does as I think it says on the tin). Bookers being able to get back in over and over once through to the ticket page has always been a massive bug bear of mine. 

 

Good luck to you all. 

 

[stuie]

14 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

 

Joking aside, if most of the old school get the boot and the majority of attendees are fresh and never been before, I do worry for the festival.  Both in terms of operations and atmosphere. 

[Mash2]

So, is it better to clear out your cache/temp storage/cookies just prior to the sale or would that result in a higher score?

 

How about using a brand new PC with literally no history?

[gsp8181]

37 minutes ago, TheFullShaboo said:

 

Lets say i have 3 devices on same wifi, but on one device i'm making a lot of 'bot activity' - multiple browsers, tabs, incognito ect - would the block be imposed on the specific device? The IP address? All 3 devices?

 

Apologies if this is a daft question, i know very little about the technical details involved but can assure you i'm desperate for a ticket 😄

So each time you get blocked, it will raise your bot score up for that network and device. The higher the bot score, the more detailed the checks and the more likely you'll be blocked from those checks. If people are behaving normally it will lower the bot score for that network.

 

Once your bot score for a network passes the high threshold, it will just block that network (IP address). And once your bot score passes a high threshold for a certain device, that device's fingerprint will be blocked.

 

Like using 'curl' to access the website or running it through an change detector will be instantly blocked as the fingerprint will be over the high threshold. And if you're on a big uni network, people are being normal but one person is hammering it, it might result in increased checks

[Avalon_Fields]

5 minutes ago, stuie said:

 

Joking aside, if most of the old school get the boot and the majority of attendees are fresh and never been before, I do worry for the festival.  Both in terms of operations and atmosphere. 

I guess many of us long standing Glastonbury folk will be apprehensive, if the demographic changes significantly then there’s the possible risk certain parts of the festival may be in jeopardy for future years, if they don’t appeal anymore. I’m thinking of Green Futures, T&C, Avalon, Acoustic, etc. Maybe. Maybe not.

[gsp8181]

33 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

 

Unfortunately when it comes to 'typical users' what you're describing is probably accurate for most people trying for a ticket these days.

 

G2025 is going to be full of Nanna's isn't it?

 

They do have it on seetickets already and I think there is a specific setup for Queue-It but I don't know if it will go nuts when everyone starts hammering F5 out of habit.

[gsp8181]

10 minutes ago, Mash2 said:

So, is it better to clear out your cache/temp storage/cookies just prior to the sale or would that result in a higher score?

 

How about using a brand new PC with literally no history?

 

So, the stuff it typically uses for fingerprinting is fixed with your computer, and clearing out the cookies wouldn't do a lot. I don't know exactly what parameters go into it though to calculate the score as it's secret to Queue-It. I also suspect that using a normal OS (Windows 10/11, OS X, iOS or a stock android) will count for a lot than something weird (Flashed Android, Linux) and a normal browser (Chrome/Edge) rather than anything rarer (Firefox/Brave/Opera)

[parsonjack]

4 minutes ago, gsp8181 said:

 

So, the stuff it typically uses for fingerprinting is fixed with your computer, and clearing out the cookies wouldn't do a lot. I don't know exactly what parameters go into it though to calculate the score as it's secret to Queue-It. I also suspect that using a normal OS (Windows 10/11, OS X, iOS or a stock android) will count for a lot than something weird (Flashed Android, Linux) and a normal browser (Chrome/Edge) rather than anything rarer (Firefox/Brave/Opera)

 

That's interesting.  I just dragged out an old Dell laptop running Windows Vista and an ancient Chrome version.  It's connected to my wifi with no dodgy plugins etc and on visiting the ticket page it instantly gets the 'Suspicious Activity Detected' page.

[Mike A]

29 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

 

That's interesting.  I just dragged out an old Dell laptop running Windows Vista and an ancient Chrome version.  It's connected to my wifi with no dodgy plugins etc and on visiting the ticket page it instantly gets the 'Suspicious Activity Detected' page.

 

Which page to you visit to get that notice? Was it https://glastonbury.seetickets.com?

Edited 3 hours ago by Mike A
typo

[gsp8181]

25 minutes ago, Mike A said:

 

Which page to you visit to get that notice? Was it https://glastonbury.seetickets.com?

 

The block will be over all .seetickets.com domains including glastonbury.seetickets.com

 

I guess because the chrome version is too old to support WebGL or Canvas so it blocks it

 

the message is

Unusual Traffic Detected

We have detected unusual activity from the IP address or connection you are using.

If you are using a VPN or proxy service to connect to us, please disconnect it and try again.

You may see this page if you are accessing our website using automated software of any kind.

If you still see this page, please try updating your browser and device.

Diagnostics

[current time]

[Akamai Trace ID]

[my ip address]

AK_WCBA

[NotAnInsider]

57 minutes ago, gsp8181 said:

 

The block will be over all .seetickets.com domains including glastonbury.seetickets.com

 

I guess because the chrome version is too old to support WebGL or Canvas so it blocks it

 

the message is

Unusual Traffic Detected

We have detected unusual activity from the IP address or connection you are using.

If you are using a VPN or proxy service to connect to us, please disconnect it and try again.

You may see this page if you are accessing our website using automated software of any kind.

If you still see this page, please try updating your browser and device.

Diagnostics

[current time]

[Akamai Trace ID]

[my ip address]

AK_WCBA

Getting the same message from the change tower monitor I've got on glastonbury.seetickets 

[parsonjack]

1 hour ago, gsp8181 said:

 

The block will be over all .seetickets.com domains including glastonbury.seetickets.com

 

I guess because the chrome version is too old to support WebGL or Canvas so it blocks it

 

the message is

Unusual Traffic Detected

We have detected unusual activity from the IP address or connection you are using.

If you are using a VPN or proxy service to connect to us, please disconnect it and try again.

You may see this page if you are accessing our website using automated software of any kind.

If you still see this page, please try updating your browser and device.

Diagnostics

[current time]

[Akamai Trace ID]

[my ip address]

AK_WCBA

 

Thanks.

 

So I guess the new message is that if you've got an "old faithful" device, that has "never failed to get you tickets since 1986", then you better either fire it up and check it before next Thursday/Sunday, or get a new one sharpish Grandad.

[efcfanwirral]

5 hours ago, gsp8181 said:

Here's how it's working

 

You go onto glastonbury.seetickets.com. You'll hit an Akamai CDN which is protected with Akamai Bot Manager

 

It will calculate an initial score for you based on your hostname, IP address, useragent, ISP, and how many people are going through that IP. So if you're going through something dodgy like a cloud datacentre or a commercial VPN you'll be a lot higher. If you're going through a mobile network AND are a mobile phone you'll probably be given more leeway.

 

If your score is too high you'll be instantly blocked, if you're in the mid zone you'll be 'flagged', and if it's low you'll be let on instantly.

 

If you're in the midpoint you can usually tell because the first time you log into the website you'll see a short delay before you get on while it 'fingerprints' your browser. Whereby it uses Javascript to gather all the information it can and can identify you with surprising accuracy, from stuff like, do you have any custom fonts, what plugins do you have in your browser, to the weirder stuff like drawing animations and analysing them to see if your graphics card has any minute differences. So they can track you if you've got firefox and chrome on the same machine.

 

Akamai will then set a load of cookies to link you to a session.

 

They'll then continuously run the fingerprinting script to watch for changes. So if you transfer any queue cookies to another browser they'll figure it out pretty fast when suddenly that browser starts giving completely different information. It will also look at stuff like your mouse pattern and you tabbing in and out to build a behavioural pattern

 

They analyse it all serverside with machine learning to compare what you're doing, to that of a typical user and bot.

 

They can also link you to activity on previous Akamai sites to work out if you're bot like or not.

 

If it thinks you're a bot it will flag you for a ban which doesn't happen instantly but typically in a minute or two.

 

If you clear the cookie it will just refingerprint you and then ban you again.

 

Queue-It is integrated into the Akamai suite and uses Akamai session handling.

 

If you're on something that meets a typical shared IP pattern such as a CGNAT like using a phone on mobile data or on a work computer they will give you a lower score and more leeway basically. If you're logging on from those AWS instances you spun up you'll be given a high score. Plus like you might have different drivers, fonts, setups, running different mobile os versions, bought different device models, languages etc. If you're doing something it considers weird like running Linux, or keeping the tab in the background you'll be given a higher score.

 

My friends got a screen reader and triggered it trying to register so I guess they've got it on a pretty high setting. I emailed them to tell them

 

Also interesting is that the SeeTickets side after the CDN is not changed at all and still has the 'youre on a holding page, refresh in 20 seconds' active which I saw triggered the other day.

 

So i'm guessing the queueit will block access to the website until you're at the front of the queue and then give you a 10 minute token to access it normally

 

If they don't properly clear the queueit session then you will be able to buy as many tickets as you like in those 10 minutes

 

A lot of it is similar to how those click here if you're a human boxes work, sometimes they let you straight on because you look like a typical user from a typical network and haven't done anything funny, sometimes they might ask you to solve a picture puzzle if you're on a shared network, and if you're on a VPN it will blast you with tons of pictures that it intentionally makes very grainy to try and trip you up

 

I do DevOps work and have seen some presentations from their competitor so figured out how this ones working

I understand most of what you're saying...and it doesnt bode well! 

 

My work involves crawling sites. Which I sometimes get banned from. Is my home network a compete no go now? Interestingly, I've never got through since I went freelance and started doing this stuff at home...

 

We stayed at the in-laws for oasis tickets, and got 5k in the queue for the presale. Their network is completely clean. I've also not got in myself using 4g on my laptop (because I suspected my network was compromised). 

the mobile network being on an actual phone thing makes sense. 

 

Also, would changing my internet package (not provider) reset these issues to your knowledge? Say from sky 100 to sky 300 or whatever. Or is it router based? I only ask because coincidentally I've just done that 

 

And windows profiles...does this make a difference? Could I create a new one or would it see through that?

 

I may have other questions...

Edited 1 hour ago by efcfanwirral

[bob323]

15 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

I understand most of what you're saying...and it doesnt bode well! 

 

My work involves crawling sites. Which I sometimes get banned from. Is my home network a compete no go now? Interestingly, I've never got through since I went freelance and started doing this stuff at home...

 

We stayed at the in-laws for oasis tickets, and got 5k in the queue for the presale. Their network is completely clean. I've also not got in myself using 4g on my laptop (because I suspected my network was compromised). 

the mobile network being on an actual phone thing makes sense. 

 

Also, would changing my internet package (not provider) reset these issues to your knowledge? Say from sky 100 to sky 300 or whatever. Or is it router based?

 

And windows profiles...does this make a difference? Could I create a new one or would it see through that?

 

I may have other questions...

 

they can only identify you based on two things (assuming you clean your cache and local storage etc..) thats your IP address and your fingerprinting record. I doubt they'll put locks for a long time on specific IP address, because they don't always last long with ISPs.

 

the other is your fingerprinting of your browser/ OS - you may want to either research how to change that (I'm not 100% on the crap your browser gives away) but i suspect a new PC/ VM(s) will solve that.

 

at a *guess* I would say a new profile would work, but i suspect it depends on how unique your setup is

Edited 1 hour ago by bob323

[Pipine]

I had loads of issues with ticketmaster thinking I was a bot in the past, it was really hard to get a session that worked.. hopefully they don’t share the same info with See.

[giantkatestacks]

I cant get onto any part of the seetickets website on my work laptop which is my only laptop and I'm not even connected to the VPN at the moment though I may have been when I was blocked the first time. Its bloody annoying as all I want to do is check my daughters reg. I'm too old to use my phone for everything.

[agwah]

2 hours ago, gsp8181 said:

So each time you get blocked, it will raise your bot score up for that network and device. The higher the bot score, the more detailed the checks and the more likely you'll be blocked from those checks. If people are behaving normally it will lower the bot score for that network.

 

Once your bot score for a network passes the high threshold, it will just block that network (IP address). And once your bot score passes a high threshold for a certain device, that device's fingerprint will be blocked.

 

Like using 'curl' to access the website or running it through an change detector will be instantly blocked as the fingerprint will be over the high threshold. And if you're on a big uni network, people are being normal but one person is hammering it, it might result in increased checks

All these new details from yourself have pretty much killed my remaining hope 😕

How are bot scores used, is it a simple threshold beyond which you get blocked, or does a good score get you a better place in the queue?

[briddj]

This all seems rather overcomplicated.

 

I think I'll just stick to my tried and tested methods and hope for the best. 

 

Got tickets for the cricket at Edgbaston and the Oval with a QueueIt system.

[efcfanwirral]

18 minutes ago, briddj said:

This all seems rather overcomplicated.

 

I think I'll just stick to my tried and tested methods and hope for the best. 

 

Got tickets for the cricket at Edgbaston and the Oval with a QueueIt system.

You probably do normal things with your network...

[airwaves]

6 hours ago, gsp8181 said:

Here's how it's working

 

You go onto glastonbury.seetickets.com. You'll hit an Akamai CDN which is protected with Akamai Bot Manager

 

It will calculate an initial score for you based on your hostname, IP address, useragent, ISP, and how many people are going through that IP. So if you're going through something dodgy like a cloud datacentre or a commercial VPN you'll be a lot higher. If you're going through a mobile network AND are a mobile phone you'll probably be given more leeway.

 

If your score is too high you'll be instantly blocked, if you're in the mid zone you'll be 'flagged', and if it's low you'll be let on instantly.

 

If you're in the midpoint you can usually tell because the first time you log into the website you'll see a short delay before you get on while it 'fingerprints' your browser. Whereby it uses Javascript to gather all the information it can and can identify you with surprising accuracy, from stuff like, do you have any custom fonts, what plugins do you have in your browser, to the weirder stuff like drawing animations and analysing them to see if your graphics card has any minute differences. So they can track you if you've got firefox and chrome on the same machine.

 

Akamai will then set a load of cookies to link you to a session.

 

They'll then continuously run the fingerprinting script to watch for changes. So if you transfer any queue cookies to another browser they'll figure it out pretty fast when suddenly that browser starts giving completely different information. It will also look at stuff like your mouse pattern and you tabbing in and out to build a behavioural pattern

 

They analyse it all serverside with machine learning to compare what you're doing, to that of a typical user and bot.

 

They can also link you to activity on previous Akamai sites to work out if you're bot like or not.

 

If it thinks you're a bot it will flag you for a ban which doesn't happen instantly but typically in a minute or two.

 

If you clear the cookie it will just refingerprint you and then ban you again.

 

Queue-It is integrated into the Akamai suite and uses Akamai session handling.

 

If you're on something that meets a typical shared IP pattern such as a CGNAT like using a phone on mobile data or on a work computer they will give you a lower score and more leeway basically. If you're logging on from those AWS instances you spun up you'll be given a high score. Plus like you might have different drivers, fonts, setups, running different mobile os versions, bought different device models, languages etc. If you're doing something it considers weird like running Linux, or keeping the tab in the background you'll be given a higher score.

 

My friends got a screen reader and triggered it trying to register so I guess they've got it on a pretty high setting. I emailed them to tell them

 

Also interesting is that the SeeTickets side after the CDN is not changed at all and still has the 'youre on a holding page, refresh in 20 seconds' active which I saw triggered the other day.

 

So i'm guessing the queueit will block access to the website until you're at the front of the queue and then give you a 10 minute token to access it normally

 

If they don't properly clear the queueit session then you will be able to buy as many tickets as you like in those 10 minutes

 

A lot of it is similar to how those click here if you're a human boxes work, sometimes they let you straight on because you look like a typical user from a typical network and haven't done anything funny, sometimes they might ask you to solve a picture puzzle if you're on a shared network, and if you're on a VPN it will blast you with tons of pictures that it intentionally makes very grainy to try and trip you up

 

I do DevOps work and have seen some presentations from their competitor so figured out how this ones working

Does all this imply that a/some browser(s) will score higher than others eg doesn't Firefox do cookies differently?? And so which to use/not use