With Glastonbury tickets set to go on sale Thursday, November 3 at 6pm, festival lovers will be eagerly waiting for their chance to nab a ticket to the annual event. Yet, securing a ticket isn’t always simple. Preparing ahead of time, ensuring you have a reliable internet connection for the ticket release and making sure you don’t fall for a scam are all important parts of the process.
Nick Baker, telecoms expert at Uswitch.com, the comparison and switching service, offers advice on how to improve your chance of bagging a ticket.
Get set and prep: Preparation is key. Prior to tickets going live, make sure you have registered for the festival and that it’s been approved. You may not be able to purchase tickets without this approval.
Note down in your calendar the exact date and time that tickets will be available for purchase. And if you’re really eager, consider setting alarms up to 10 minutes before tickets go on sale, providing you with time to prepare.
Decide in advance the types of tickets you want to purchase and agree with your friends that those are the tickets you are getting. This way you won’t waste any time at checkout. Be careful to enter your details accurately, if you don’t - it could lead to complications.
Buffering zone: The last thing you want when in the midst of booking festival tickets is for your internet connection to drop out mid-checkout, as this could risk losing all your progress and put you back to the end of the queue. Before you start the buying process, check your internet connection is up to scratch by running a speed test. If your internet is not performing as well as it should, it might be worth contacting your provider to see if there’s an issue.
If you’re out of contract or nearing the end of your current broadband deal, it’s worth running a comparison to see what reliable broadband packages are currently available. If you are using your mobile to make the purchase, consider using Wi-Fi if you’re not confident in your local network signal.
Don’t refresh: Once online and ready to go, avoid refreshing the page, as this may cause you to lose your place in the queue. See Tickets will automatically refresh for you when you are given the opportunity to pick your tickets. Similarly, avoid opening multiple tabs for the same ticket retailer, as this may lead the ticket system to believe that you’re a ‘bot’ and therefore prevent you from accessing the website and purchasing tickets altogether.
Never give up: The ticket retailer will be its busiest as soon as tickets go on sale, and significant site traffic can sometimes cause online complications and page crashes. Even if an event appears to be sold out on the ticket website, this is not always the case. Occasionally high site traffic can result in tickets appearing falsely unavailable. If this happens, be sure to continue checking and looking for tickets over the following few hours. Additional tickets may appear and this could be your chance to secure them.
Don’t fall victim to scams: Aside from See Tickets, no other site or agency will be allocated Glastonbury tickets, so be wary of making a purchase through another retailer. All tickets for the festival are individually personalised to the named ticket holder and are strictly non-transferable, which is to attempt to stop resellers. Security checks are carried out on arrival, and only the specified ticket holder will be admitted to the festival. If you miss out on tickets when they go on sale, any cancellations will be made available for resale at face value via the festival’s authorised ticket agency only.
