Glastonbury Festival tickets on sale this Sunday, for as little as a £50 deposit

This weekend will be the first time ever that tickets for Glastonbury Festival have gone on sale so early, and the first time that fans will be able to either put down a £50 deposit or pay for their tickets outright.

Festival organiser Michael Eavis said, "After three years, I am now confident that we have developed the fairest ticketing operation available anywhere, and we are ready to go. With the new scheme, backed by the all-important registration process, everyone has an equal chance of getting a ticket. And most importantly, every ticket will be going to a genuine festival-goer direct. I'm also convinced that the £50 deposit will help a lot of people to spread the payment for their ticket over a much longer period."

Glastonbury Festival has also been declared "possibly the best managed event of its kind in the world", according to a review of the 2008 event by Mendip District Council.

The council has praised everyone involved with organising the festival this summer, calling it "well-planned, managed and implemented" according to a news article by the BBC, (here).

Glastonbury Festival has always been at the forefront of event management of this kind, and has been instrumental in helping form the 'pop code' or to give it its full title 'The Event Safety Guide: a guide to health, safety and welfare at music and similar events'.

The review of the event by Mendip District Council will be the last for their director for planning and environment Charles Uzzell who over the last few years has been helping with the major improvements made to the Glastonbury Festival. He's leaving Mendip District Council to take up a new post at Torbay Council in Devon.

The Council's report did have one area of concern and that was noise control. The BBC says that the council received 32 noise complaints from residents in 21 properties, some as far away as Shepton Mallet and Castle Cary. So, amongst more than 30 new recommendations, there are also recommendations aimed at reducing the effects of noise on nearby towns and villages.

The two new areas at the festival called 'Shangri La' and 'Trash City' were mainly targeted as areas of noise concern. However, Mendip District Council environmental health officer Keith Horton explains in the article that the weather conditions carried some noise farther than usual. He said, "It has been long recognised that the festival site is host to a very significant amount of acoustic energy and inevitably there will be some community impact. Weather conditions can significantly influence the off-site effects and there was evidence of this again this year."

The BBC article also highlights that this year's festival also won praise from Avon and Somerset Constabulary, the Environment Agency, Somerset Primary Care Trust, and Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue.

Everyone who plans to the come the Festival must register, and that includes children aged 13, 14 and 15. Each ticket sold will feature a photograph of the person in whose name it is registered and will be non-transferable. So if you plan to buy tickets for friends or family you must make sure they all register!

Online registration can be carried out by clicking here. Those without internet access can apply for a registration form (enclosing an SAE) to Glastonbury, PO Box 2445, Glasgow G40 9AG.

Registration does not reserve or guarantee you a ticket when they go on sale at at 9am this Sunday (5th October), but if you don't register you will not be able to buy a weekend ticket for Glastonbury Festival 2009. All registered festival-goers will have two options. They can either buy a full weekend ticket at a price of £175 (plus a booking fee of £5).

Alternatively, tickets can be reserved at a cost of £50 per ticket. The balance will be payable by Sunday 1st February 2009. With both these options, the number of tickets available per transaction for registered customers is now unlimited.

Payment made for tickets by card for UK sales (both online and by telephone) will be by the following debit cards only - Visa Debit, Visa Electron, Switch/Maestro Domestic and Solo. Credit cards will not be accepted for UK sales. For the purpose of ticket sales the UK includes Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

Next year's Glastonbury runs for five full days - from Wednesday 24th until Sunday 28th June 2009 – across 1,000 acres of beautiful countryside at Worthy Farm, Somerset. Expect something like 2,000 performances at 50 or so venues including music, cabaret, theatre, circus, a fantastic Kidz area, poetry, green crafts and information and loads, loads more ... much more than just the music, so make sure you check it all out!

To see who might be playing, take a look at the eFestivals' Glastonbury 2009 rumours >>.

For detailed information on all aspects of the festival, click here.

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