Glastonbury Festival spokesman John Shearlaw has said that he is ’pretty chuffed’ after half the tickets for next year’s festival were sold or reserved, eight months in advance.
Tickets went on sale on Sunday morning at 8am one hour ahead of schedule and by 5pm over half the 137,500 places were taken.
Shearlaw said Michael Eavis and his team were ‘very calm’ despite demand for tickets having ‘dropped off’ by 7pm. The sales lines will remain open for another week, before a second batch of tickets go on sale on April 6th which bosses hope will see the remaining places taken.
Mr Shearlaw said it would have been ‘extraordinary’ if all the tickets had sold out immediately, so far in advance.
He said: “That would have been extraordinary, without a line-up and eight months before the event. You can look at it from both sides because if they had all sold out, there would have been eight months of turning people away!
“We are very calm about it – it’s a vote of confidence. While its been too early for some people, our regulars, like students, obviously see it as a good deal to put £50 now and pay the rest later. We are pretty chuffed.”
He denied that a wet Sunday had got people out of the festival mood, saying: “It’s brilliant that here we are in October talking about a festival that isn’t happening until next year. This is the third year of pre-registration and we are the one festival that can say our tickets are not going to touts.”
After the first round of sales, the remaining tickets will be offered on the 5th April.
