Life– Terror. Ecstasy. Fight. Denial. Flight. Failure. PAIN. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Hope. Love. Peace – Death
Glastonbury 2025 Ticket Sale Sunday.
A hapless nervous, Saturday night sleep. Fitful, despite, reassuring, alarms, “but what if I sleep in”? Glasto Tickets Sale – Always a tense affair. All or nothing, reward or not? Ecstatic if successful and devastation if not. A feeling that can last far longer than is proportionate, weeks even months, until another, slim chance, for redemption, resale day.
November 2024 – Todays’ sale was different.
Starting with the date. Previously, it has always been during October. For the first time, in my memory, there were significant changes to the precious ticket selling, allocating process, supposedly to make it easier and fairer.
Last Thursday, seen the precursor to the main ticket sale, the Coach Tickets sale. Only a small allocation in comparison but an additional bite at the Glastonbury cherry none the less. ‘We’ secured coach tickets last year and it was, in some ways, better than standard.
Thursdays’ sale was over within seconds (probably 10 minutes). The new system must have been amazing for those that did but rather shit for (us) that did not.
Technology driven, it seems like the new allocation system hangs on a digital waiting room set-up? A Queue ID on entering the waiting room after which buyers are selected randomly from the digital waiting room, progressed towards the next step, an administration process (if you get that far of course) and finally, once all of your registration details [up to six] are inputted, you reach the payment page. Only after your payment is “accepted” are your, priceless, Glastonbury tickets secured.
I am sure there are multiple additional factors I have ignored but one of the most noticeable changes ,is the lack of, or, more appropriately, the dropping of, the legendary Glastonbury “refresh action”. Within the new system this is now a thing of the past.
No more refreshing!
If you have never engaged with the “refresh” thing before? You have no idea how hard it is to resist this? How hard it was to sit doing nothing at all.
I have been lucky to get tickets (one way or another) on seventeen occasions, even once during re-sale, but mostly as part of a small, organised, like-minded group (6-12). I have never been successful personally. I have never been the guy who brought home the bacon. It has always been someone else within my group who has secured our tickets. I wish I could have been the one just once, especially this time (2025).
My first Glastonbury, 2007, to mark a significant wedding anniversary. Yes, I was late to the Glastonbury Party, which I deeply regret, especially not inducting our children to Glastonbury. 2007, my choice, my wife (Gail), chose a Norwegian Fiord Cruise. If you look it Glastonbury 2007 it is widely recognised as being one of, if not, the worse ever weather in the history of the festival (across the whole 5 days). 17 festivals in, I would not argue.
It was raining when we arrived on Thursday morning and was raining when we left the following Monday lunch, it sis not stop once in between.
I have posted about 2007 previously but a couple of the highlights are worth repeating. We woke early Saturday mourning (7.00am), I put my head out of our, already partially submerged tent. I was confronted with a guy paddling a canoe, slowly navigating in-between the 1000’s of water-logged tents.
I shit you not!
Who the fuck brings a canoe to Glastonbury?
Gail, on Sunday afternoon, was so close to telephoning Arthur (her dad), 300 miles away, in Liverpool, to come pick her up. Instead, she asked me, “for fucks sake, just give me something that will make me smile”. This was a huge surprise as Gail has an uncompromising anti-drugs stance. I gave her a smallish lump of hash (resin) to digest. Around 4-5 hours later she ‘we’ were dancing our tits off, in the pissing down rain, watching the Who at the Pyramid Stage.
Post 2007 I have not missed a single [available] Glastonbury. Gail, still traumatised by 2007, has never been since, she says, “I would rather stay at home and put red hot needles into my eyes than go thru THAT again”! That is until this year, Glastonbury 2024. I really wanted her to go, I have done so for some years now. I enjoy it so much. I “love” Glastonbury so much. I desperately wanted her to experience it again but this time, to experience ‘the no place like it on Earth, Glastonbury, in the Sun’ I have experienced many times but together.
Nobody can guarantee the weather? Since 2007 she would never want to come.
From 2008 on I convinced my (many also Glasto Virgins) to come. Our group grew, quickly becoming, ‘Glasto Buddies for life’? 10-15 years on how do you fit your wife, partner, girlfriend into that? Things change and people change, life takes over and our core ‘Glasto Posse’ has changed over the years. Now, we are just a hardcore 3 but with several splinter groups, forming their own posses’.
Glastonbury 2024, somehow we got tickets, for the first time, coach.
My son, Aubrey, his partner Charlotte and my Grandson, Fennec. For little Fenn it would be his third Glastonbury in just two years! We convinced Gail to come, mainly due to the allure of Fenn going. I think she wanted to make sure we looked after him! 17 years after her first Glastonbury (2007), her second, Glastonbury 2024. Sadly, for me though, the last two remnants of our “Glasto Posse” dropped out.
Glasto 2025 Ticket Sale Sunday, (today). I did not break my duck. I didn’t even get a sniff. A maximum “2 bars” on my progress meter. None of our group did. We had a decent presence with several others trying for us as well. None of those trying for us got close either. Aubrey was closest and the most frustrating. He did get to the crucial stage only to be prevented from completing (5 times) due to what appears to be no fault of his own. Subsequent, angry ‘chats’ have testified to similar, frustrating experiences.
I am lucky to have experienced, many, unbelievable, Glastonbury “moments” too many to mention here. My ultimate Glastonbury achievement? Has to be, front row, Pyramid Stage Headliner, Radiohead 2017. I had stood 6-8? hours with my Glasto core, Franc & Darran, in the sweltering heat, like many others, half my age, close to collapse, Darran had to bail out before the start of the show. Franc and I, somehow, stayed. It was an unforgettable, bucket list, event for me, for us.
It is unlikely I will be attending Glastonbury 2025 for what would almost certainly have been my last Glastonbury.
My illnesses are at that stage where I am reduced to only short-to medium term Goals. There is no Glastonbury 2026 (a fallow year) and I am highly unlikely to be around for 2027, although I will fucking try my best!
For those who are going next year, there are so many things you already think you know about it? Be prepared, as it is much, much more!
Glastonbury [especially in the sun], there is not place like it on Earth! “You lucky lucky barstards…….” It will change your life. “Relish the Moments”
Thanks for reading
#peace
Dying to Live 