How I would fix the ticket system

[Leyrulion]

55 minutes ago, tigger123 said:

Only just had this idea so not really thought it through but I like the idea others have mentioned of having to enter your reg number in order to access the queue to reduce the multiple windows etc (like others have said they do for their football clubs). I like the idea mainly because it would stop people being able to buy bots to game the system etc.

 

However, the concern was around people then just making loads of different registrations. A way around this could be to charge a certain amount for registration, say £10 or something and then that can be used for 5 years' worth of sales or something like that. Now again I know it's not ideal to introduce more costs to people but £10 is something I think pretty much everyone would be able to afford (essentially £2 per year) especially if it bought them access to a few years' worth of sales, yet would act as a deterrent to those who would contemplate creating loads of extras. This charge money could then all go towards paying for people at See to look through for any duplicate registrations. This would hopefully have the effect of justifying the charge to the majority who are concerned the system isn't fair by assuring them they are paying a small amount to make the system fairer and would hopefully discourage the more wealthy who would consider paying for loads of registrations, given they would be doing so in the knowledge that they stand a strong chance of being found out and having those duplicate registrations deleted and the money they paid for them lost. Slightly annoying obviously if you don't get tickets and have paid £10 but as this would be buying you access for 5 years worth of sales, you would only be losing £2, which let's be honest should be affordable to everyone is able to fork out £400 for a ticket and all the costs of attending the festival.

 

This obviously would have to start with everyone's existing reg details being deleted and everyone having to re-register.

 

Appreciate this is unlikely and again I reiterate this is an idea I've only just had so isn't properly thought out but keen to hear what others think.

So I'd interpret that as I pay for a new registration each year. Different email, address, phone, photo. Over time would build up to five attempts. They probably wouldn't be able to tell without facial recognition software which they'd probably have to re-consent everyone on the database to use (imagine how that would go down). Chances of being caught would (quite literally) be 1 in a million. 

 

I'd also have my regular group make a new registration each year to do the same. Would make sure the friends who decided not to go this year and still had some years left on their registration gave me their details as well. 

 

So that would quickly run me up to about 20 attempts. 

 

My point here is that every possible scheme has flaws and work arounds to improve your chances.

Edited 17 hours ago by Leyrulion

[Toilet Duck]

19 minutes ago, Gnomicide said:

 

I was reading through this thread, prepping myself to type something similar but no doubt less eloquent. 

 

There seem to be a lot of people wishing everyone has a really sh*t festival one year, just to make it easier to get a ticket the following year. Absolutely baffling opinion.

Ah, when you miss out it’s disappointing so as fanatics about the festival we come up with some out there suggestions. It’s almost grief! But yeah, can’t understand the idea that it’s awful for once just to dampen down demand a bit…I hope it’s one for the ages and all the newbies that got a ticket are converted for life like I was many moons ago. Having missed out before, I’m entirely ok with it (I did enquire at Yurtel about how much it would be for one of their packages, but even they have quadrupled the price of their cheapest option this year and much as I’d like to go, I don’t wanna go THAT much!). Maybe it’s time I put my hand up to volunteer since I’ve gotten so much joy from the festival over the years and I should give something back (have done so at Irish festivals, but not Glastonbury yet). The crazy ideas always die down and we deal with whatever ticket buying system comes next. Some years we’ll be lucky, others not so much. 

Edited 16 hours ago by Toilet Duck
Typo!

[Peroni]

18 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

Another way (which I know wouldn't be popular) would be to get rid of the deposit system.

 You used to have x2 options.  The full ticket price path was always simpler....

 

Back then you couldnt use credit cards either....

[Peroni]

11 hours ago, stuie said:

 

Not as a first time festival, not anywhere near a significant percentage.  It's too hard to get tickets and too big for most people to see it as an entry point.  

 

Of course BBC attract people - that's the whole point of them. 

In 2009 it was my first fest... not statistically valid but it does happen....

 

I was dragged by my boyfriend now husband to attend it... his family had been for years.

 

 

[TravSC]

The obvious and very easy ways to fix this are (as others have pointed out) only allowing one queue entry per registration, ensuring the lead booker is buying tix for themselves & going from 6 tix to 4 max. Unless you’re a complete tech geek, the work-arounds to circumvent this dry up super quick with the above.

Mind you, I’d allow resales and whatever price that fetches so be it……like other products & services in our lives we choose what we want to spend money on…..if I’d rather spend $3k on a Glasto ticket than go to Hawaii that should be a choice I can freely make, no? This current system of tech nerds & folks with big groups using spreadsheets……a weird middle ground that doesn’t feel right at all.

 

[Alvoram]

56 minutes ago, TravSC said:

The obvious and very easy ways to fix this are (as others have pointed out) only allowing one queue entry per registration, ensuring the lead booker is buying tix for themselves & going from 6 tix to 4 max. Unless you’re a complete tech geek, the work-arounds to circumvent this dry up super quick with the above.

Mind you, I’d allow resales and whatever price that fetches so be it……like other products & services in our lives we choose what we want to spend money on…..if I’d rather spend $3k on a Glasto ticket than go to Hawaii that should be a choice I can freely make, no? This current system of tech nerds & folks with big groups using spreadsheets……a weird middle ground that doesn’t feel right at all.

 

Changing this would change the festival entirely. Big groups working together has been happening for a long time. The new version of this is tech geeks helping big groups of none tech geeks do techie things, as was seen in this sale. The previous version of it was people helping others over the fence. It's always happened in some way or another.

The greatest festival on earth is the greatest festival because of the people, the community and the vibe. Why would anybody want to change that? Bring more people into that community, and let more people experience it, especially youngsters, the future of the festival, sure, but change it beyond recognition? Surely not? 

Also, allowing ticket resales is a terrible take, it would be the worst possible thing to happen to the festival. It's a very capitalist thing to suggest, not really in keeping with the entire ethos of the festival. It would mean moving even more towards the middle and upper class demographic.  

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Alvoram

[Suprefan]

Thanks for adding layers to the system which would break the system and therefore not let anyone be able to buy tickets. Youre dealing with a B level ticket seller here. They obviously couldnt afford good enough It to make sure this sale was secure cause nobody knew what to check for despite past incidents on the same platform. And youre adding a bunch of sh*t that has a chance to fail under a high load. Thus why the previous system worked so ''well'' was because it was crude and it was obviously about effort. Now, despite being able to game the system you still have a similar situation. Its still pretty simple without extra sh*t getting in the way. Yes, there were some errors trying to get through on either purchase or registration. But thats 1 step instead of adding 3 more because you feel thats how you expose duplicates accounts etc. So you see how you think adding means itll be better? Its not. I think theyll keep it like this and take all this time right now to figure out the issues and thatll be that. Like I said in another thread, they only care about  their tickets not hitting the resale market, other than that, as long as it sells out, they dont give a sh*t how it happens. You still have a chance to be one of 50,000 that can go ''work for free'' over the festival weekend, so why arent those odds better for you than sitting in front of a computer.

[gooner1990]

4 hours ago, Peroni said:

 You used to have x2 options.  The full ticket price path was always simpler....

 

Back then you couldnt use credit cards either....

 

The first four times I went (2004, 2005, 2007 & 2008) it was the full payment up front in the April!

[Keithy]

The only solution is everyone needs to write a letter to Emily saying why they want to attend, why they deserve to go more than someone else, including a postal order for the full ticket price to prove they are financially prudent to save in advance and a selfie photo to prove they've done one wet year. 

 

Michael will then hand deliver the tickets on January 10th, in his shorts, and personally check your passport photo to ensure you match the photo you sent. He will then give you 6 dice and if you roll 2 fives in one throw then you've passed the statistical probability test and he hands you the ticket in exchange for the F5 button from your keyboard. 

Edited 7 hours ago by Keithy

[-TLR-]

aside from selling physical tickets, in person, one ticket per person from the old festival office in the town - i really don't see any way to make the system better / fairer.

 

i read all these post about how people game the system - the new one and the old one - and i really feel there is some whole world i have no idea about.

 

me and my crew always got our tickets by mashing the F5 - i have zero tech knowledge.

 

previous to that we just walked into Stargreen box office and said can i have a Glastonbury ticket please.

[MilkyJoe]

27 minutes ago, Keithy said:

The only solution is everyone needs to write a letter to Emily saying why they want to attend, why they deserve to go more than someone else, including a postal order for the full ticket price to prove they are financially prudent to save in advance and a selfie photo to prove they've done one wet year. 

 

Michael will then hand deliver the tickets on January 10th, in his shorts, and personally check your passport photo I'd to ensure you match the photo you sent. He will then give you 6 dice and if you roll 2 fives in one throw then you've passed the statistical probability test and he hands you the ticket in exchange for the F5 button from your keyboard. 

Brilliant!😁

[czuk]

Here's my take on a fair ticket sale.  I can't think of any loopholes, will wait for the replies.

 

Registration database is reset after each festival.  You will have to re-register for the next festival.  The idea is you should only register once.

 

If you change address, you must edit your registration and pay GFL an admin fee (£35?) for them to approve your change of address.  This would involve uploading proof that you lived at your previous address and also proof that you now live at your current address.  This is to stop multiple registrations.

 

On ticket day, you must log in using your registration number and postcode before you get a queue ID.  The queue ID is stored against your registration number and will stays the same if you log on to multiple browser sessions.  If you intend to purchase tickets for others (total 4 for coach, 6 for main), you must also enter their registrations before you get a queue ID.  This allows small groups to purchase tickets whilst stopping big syndicates having an unfair advantage.

 

To make it worthwhile waiting in the queue, I would stop the queue IDs being assigned their place in the queue at the start of the sale.  Instead I would have the servers randomly choose a registration number from those that haven't already got a ticket - all browser sessions with the associated queue ID would display a prompt "click here to purchase tickets" that can only be clicked once which allows the chosen browser to proceed to a ticket purchase screen where payment is taken, and the queue ID expires.

 

I would also have a tickets sold/remaining counter on all browsers just to keep it interesting.
 

[gfa]

17 hours ago, stuie said:

 

 

yes, please stop booking big artists. it was really bad good. 

This is obviously not what I meant.

 

Everyone knew that set would be a disaster and shocker - it was. Should have been at headliner time - it f**ked the SEC for several hours.

Edited 6 hours ago by gfa

[philipsteak]

"Hey Glastonbury. How's it going? Still running one of the most popular, well loved and successful events ever? Another sell out? Nice.

Anyway, We've had a chat and we reckon that what you actually need to do is make it less appealing to attend, put up unnecessary barriers, and increase the cost to the customers and to yourselves. 

What do you think?"

[ehg]

Of the vaguely feasible tweaks to the existing system, I think re-registering once each year and having to enter your registration number in order to get your place in the queue offer the best trade-off between fairness and convenience. Wouldn’t eradicate hacks, but would limit them substantially without costing the festival loads or inconveniencing fans too much .

 

In terms of insane, probably unfeasible ideas to better manage the underlying issue of supply and demand: what about doing a Coachella and having two separate weekends, one before the solstice, one after, with the site cleared inbetween? Limit people to booking one weekend or the other, maybe skew it so the SE Corner isn’t open for the first one, under 18s aren’t allowed at the second. More money for the festival, twice as many people get in, might even make tickets cheaper given shared infrastructure / build costs between the two weekends. Creates loads of logistical / staffing / Pilton resident problems obviously, but if we’re going for completely mad ideas then why not.

[-TLR-]

2 minutes ago, ehg said:

In terms of insane, probably unfeasible ideas to better manage the underlying issue of supply and demand: what about doing a Coachella and having two separate weekends, one before the solstice, one after, with the site cleared inbetween? Limit people to booking one weekend or the other, maybe skew it so the SE Corner isn’t open for the first one, under 18s aren’t allowed at the second. More money for the festival, twice as many people get in, might even make tickets cheaper given shared infrastructure / build costs between the two weekends. Creates loads of logistical / staffing / Pilton resident problems obviously, but if we’re going for completely mad ideas then why not.

 

lets do this!

 

but my way would be to make the second weekend essentially a "worthy pastures" weekend... Worthy Pastures was wonderful and for me captured all that is special about Glastonbury.

 

they still dismantle the festival right after, but leave up the fence another week, keep a bunch of food traders and a couple of bars in place.

 

first weekend for people who want to be in constant over crowding, watching a bunch of crappy Wireless Festival rejects.

 

second weekend for people who want to enjoy being in the beautiful place that is Worthy Farm.

 

🙂 

 

[stuie]

1 hour ago, ehg said:

In terms of insane, probably unfeasible ideas to better manage the underlying issue of supply and demand: what about doing a Coachella and having two separate weekends, one before the solstice, one after, with the site cleared inbetween? Limit people to booking one weekend or the other, maybe skew it so the SE Corner isn’t open for the first one, under 18s aren’t allowed at the second. More money for the festival, twice as many people get in, might even make tickets cheaper given shared infrastructure / build costs between the two weekends. Creates loads of logistical / staffing / Pilton resident problems obviously, but if we’re going for completely mad ideas then why not.

 

It is a freak wonder of the UK licencing system and a product of years of negotiations that we have a 1 week Glastonbury festival.  There is absolutely no way permission would be given for 2 weeks.  

[Nice hymer]

One week puts a lot of local people to great inconvenience, two weeks would be unbearable.

 

I'm not sure if people are aware of quite how disruptive it is, not just in the immediate vicinity but for miles around...

[Skip997]

20 minutes ago, Nice hymer said:

One week puts a lot of local people to great inconvenience, two weeks would be unbearable.

 

I'm not sure if people are aware of quite how disruptive it is, not just in the immediate vicinity but for miles around...

Brings a shed load of money into the area though?

[Fred Zepplin]

In any scenario where demand massively outweighs supply there will always be people trying to make money out of the situation and trying to work ways to beat the system, it’s inevitable. 
If it went back to buying tickets from a shop people would be queuing up for weeks and selling there place in the queue 

[Old_Johno]

The only way to improve the ticket system is to reduce demand by having a few really really, rainy years, and ban all the £1000+ offsite glamping sites for influencers that are too posh to camp 

[Tranquility of Solitude]

1 minute ago, Old_Johno said:

The only way to improve the ticket system is to reduce demand by having a few really really, rainy years, and ban all the £1000+ offsite glamping sites for influencers that are too posh to camp 

Or charge £50 every time you want a pass out ticket 😉 

[incident]

51 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Brings a shed load of money into the area though?

 

That's great for the people who see it.

 

How it impacts people will vary dramatically - the farmers who can rent out their fields will be quids in, the local B&Bs likewise. Others won't see a benefit, at least not directly or in a way that they attribute to the festival.

[Skip997]

1 hour ago, incident said:

 

That's great for the people who see it.

 

How it impacts people will vary dramatically - the farmers who can rent out their fields will be quids in, the local B&Bs likewise. Others won't see a benefit, at least not directly or in a way that they attribute to the festival.

I know a few folks who live right on site and make plenty 

[gfa]

5 hours ago, ehg said:

Of the vaguely feasible tweaks to the existing system, I think re-registering once each year and having to enter your registration number in order to get your place in the queue offer the best trade-off between fairness and convenience. Wouldn’t eradicate hacks, but would limit them substantially without costing the festival loads or inconveniencing fans too much .

This would be a huge amount of admin for literally no benefit

 

(the second bit in italics is good but doesn't require the admin of the first to be effective surely)

Edited 1 minute ago by gfa