How Glastonbury Tickets Work
From free photo registration to the spring resale, the Glastonbury ticket system rewards fans who prepare early and stick to the official seller.
Glastonbury tickets can only be bought by people who have registered in advance with a photo, and they are sold exclusively through See Tickets, with a deposit first and the balance later. Tickets are personalised and non-transferable, and returns go back on sale only through the official resale.
Registration comes first
Everyone aged 13 or over who wants to attend the Festival must be individually registered before they can try for a ticket. Registration is free, and involves uploading a passport-style photo of yourself. Glastonbury advises updating the photo if it is no longer a good likeness at least 7 days before registration closes, and registration closes ahead of each sale, so leave plenty of time.
This is to prevent ticket fraud and touting. General admission tickets carry the photo of the registered ticket-holder, and identification checks take place at all entry points. The festival states that all tickets are personalised to the named ticket holder and are strictly non-transferable.
Sale day, deposits and balances
Tickets are sold exclusively at glastonbury.seetickets.com. The sale is split in two: a coach-and-ticket sale, which includes coach travel to the site, comes first, followed a few days later by the general admission sale. One lead booker can buy up to six tickets in one transaction, entering the registration number and registered postcode for each person.
The festival has advised being online a few minutes before the sale opens, and not refreshing the page or using several devices or tabs, which can lose a place in the queue or trip its anti-bot protection. Have every registration number and postcode ready before the queue opens.
At booking, each ticket is secured with a deposit; the balance is due in the spring before the festival, and a booking can be lost if it is not paid on time. Amounts, deadlines and refund rules are set in each year's terms, so check the official ticket information before the sale.
Resale, touts and fallow years
Tickets that are cancelled or returned are resold at face value through the official resale, exclusively on See Tickets, which usually takes place in the spring. That is the only legitimate second chance. Anyone offering a Glastonbury ticket elsewhere, or claiming a ticket is transferable, is not offering a valid ticket, because the photo and name on it must match the person at the gate.
Some years are fallow: the festival takes a periodic break to rest the land at Worthy Farm, and no festival or ticket sale is held that year.
For a first-timer, the safe route is simple: register early, keep the photo up to date, buy only through the official seller, and read the current official terms before sale day.
