Disappointed music fans express frustration after Glastonbury website crashes

Glastonbury 2023 tickets sold out in just over an hour this morning – but hundreds of thousands of music fans were left furious after the sale was blighted by technical issues. 

The coach tickets for the festival – with Harry Styles, Arctic Monkeys and Eminem all rumoured to be on the bill – went on sale on Thursday, selling in out in just 23 minutes, with the remainder of the £340 tickets being released at 9am this morning. 

However, those trying to bag their spot at Worthy Farm faced crashed web pages, a ‘whirring circle of doom’ and disappointment after handing over bank details before their purchases halted without explanation. 

One festival-goer who did manage to get tickets said the process was ‘shambolic’ while others called for a ballot system in future, saying: ‘There has to be a better way’.

The general sale for Glastonbury tickets opened at 9am on Sunday…but technical problems left hundreds of thousands of fans disappointed

See Tickets, the company behind today’s general sale apologised for glitches, admitting on Twitter half way through the sale that it had been experiencing technical problems. 

Around 9:47am, the company acknowledged there were issues, writing: ‘We’re working on a technical problem. If you’re trying to book tickets please bear with us – we’ll be back up and running soon.’ 

Early on, the official Twitter feed for the festival, @glastonbury, warned fans to only use one device…but many didn’t heed the advice, sharing photos of themselves with multiple laptops open. 

Just after 10am, the company announced tickets had all been sold, leaving many fans disappointed – and raging at the technical problems. 

@NorthumbriaPaul wrote: ‘Was hoping to get tickets for my 50th birthday next year, but always knew I would be disappointed! Kicked out of the @seetickets website so many times!’

@helengore1 added: ‘So excited to have got #Glastonbury tickets for myself and my friends – but what a shambolic experience – @seetickets you need to get your act together. Always a painful experience, but so many times being kicked off payment page – really not OK. Feel for those who missed out.’

@MarshJ70 was unsure whether they’d actually got tickets despite getting as far as the payment page. They wrote: ‘@glastonbury payment taken then nothing? Have i got tickets? #glastonbury2023 #Glastonbury’.

Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis posted a tweet on her own page after the tickets sold out, saying: ‘We’re sorry that a huge number of people missed out on a ticket this morning’, saying ‘demand far outstripped supply’.

As the sale went on, there were some good news stories though, with some people even managing to buy tickets after the ‘sold out’ messages had been posted by the official Glastonbury page.  

@maddysavage wrote: ‘Going to #Glastonbury. First time since 2007! My iPad efforts failed but a friend managed to get tickets! Who else is going?!’

Standard tickets now cost £335 plus a £5 booking fee, with £50 as a deposit and the balance due by the first week of April.

The last time tickets went on general sale was in 2019, when they cost £280 plus a £5 booking fee for what should have been the 2020 festival, but it was subsequently cancelled for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Headliners for next year’s festival have yet to be announced – but it’s thought Eminem may be crossing the Atlantic Ocean to headline.

The rapper, 49, is reportedly in talks to play the huge event at Worthy Farm in England, with Harry Styles and the Arctic Monkeys also thought to be currently in negotiations with Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis.