Emily Eavis has addressed the spike in ticket price for next summer’s Glastonbury festival after fans described it as a ‘p*sstake’.
The enormous music event usually sells out in minutes, but a few fans have been disappointed to see that the cost of tickets has jumped up to £335, plus a £5 booking fee.
Emily, who organises the world-famous festival and is the daughter of its founder Michael, said that the Glastonbury team has tried ‘very hard’ to keep ticket prices low.
She cited the rising cost of basically everything when addressing the new price in a statement.
Glastonbury normally attracts the biggest names in the music industry, with headliners over the years including Coldplay, Kanye, Dolly Parton, Adele, Beyonce, Arctic Monkeys and Jay-Z.
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Glastonbury is one of the biggest festivals in the world. Credit: Unsplash
Rumours for this year’s festival, which will take place between 21 and 25 June 2023 at Worthy Farm, include Harry Styles, Roxy Music, Eminem, Elton John and Arctic Monkeys.
But despite such huge names, many are outraged at the ‘big leap’ of a price of a weekend at Glastonbury.
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One person said: “I’ve been to Glastonbury once. Was an brilliant experience. Incredible festival. That being said, given the current climate, £340 is an absolute p*sstake. What are you getting above an beyond 10-15 years ago when the prices were half that?”
Another said: “Glastonbury’s price increase from £270 to £340 is a 26% price increase. Part inevitable but further removing the festival from its radical roots & pricing it out of the reach of many music lovers.”
Someone else commented: “Glastonbury now costing £340 is unsurprising but also concerning. Don’t think this is the festival organisers fault, they are just another victim of the current climate, but this doesn’t help the idea that the music industry is increasingly closing itself off to the working class.”
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Emily said: “I wanted to post about the Glastonbury 2023 ticket price which was announced today.
“We have tried very hard to minimise the increase in price on the ticket but we’re facing enormous rises in the costs of running this vast show, whilst still recovering from the huge financial impact of two years without a festival because of COVID.
“The £50 deposit on ticket sales day in November will be the same as ever, with the balance not due until April. And, as always, there will be opportunities for many thousands of people to come as volunteers or as part of the crew.
“In these incredibly challenging times, we want to continue to bring you the best show in the world and provide our charities with funds which are more vital than ever. We are, as always, hugely appreciative of your ongoing support.”
Thankfully, many music fans have said they understand why Glastonbury tickets are suddenly costing so much more.
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A ticket for a stadium gig is pretty much £100 nowadays.
You could call the 3 Pyramid headliners stadium gigs and that’s the £300 equivalent. Leaving £40 extra to pay for The Other, West Holts, The Park, BYOB, 100+ stages
Someone wrote: “A Glastonbury ticket is worth well over £1000. The price hike is totally justified, especially in the current economical climate. It’s always been obscenely cheap for what you get imo. I’m surprised it wasn’t done sooner – it speaks volumes about what they stand for.”
Another said: “Never been to Glastonbury, but if I did, I’d probably think £330 was pretty decent value, especially when the likes of Chris Martin and his merry band of sustainable touring hypocrites are knocking out 2 hours at the Etihad for £500+.”
One commented: “I mean, it‘s still a bargain, but that’s a big leap. Goes to show how all the price increases over the last year cascade through. Their staff need paying after all, and there’s a fair few lights and speakers…”
get that glastonbury is a huge endeavour, that costs for everything are rising and that the festival industry as a whole is struggling after covid but with ticket prices up to £340pp (before food, travel, drink) it's clear the festival is now almost exclusively for the wealthy https://t.co/wVhzNAltvA
One person joked: “£340 for Glastonbury tickets… the first time I went, I paid a dodgy geezer £20 for a wristband and a lift over the fence.”
Someone else quipped: “£340 for Glastonbury next year ! Bloody Hell, you could have the heating on all morning for that.”
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And summing it all up, someone else wrote: “If you think I’m willing to spend £350 on a ticket to the greatest place and biggest party on the plant then your right, I am…”
Glastonbury 2023 is scheduled for 21 to 25 June at Worthy Farm in Somerset, with tickets on sale on 6 November.
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Benson Boone has announced a headline gig in Manchester – and it’s a big one
Danny Jones
American pop sensation and unrivalled king of unnecessary front flips, Benson Boone, has just announced his first-ever headline Manchester arena gig as part of a new arena tour.
The solo artist and acrobatic chart-topper has seen a meteoric rise in the US and, as is usually the case across the Atlantic, he’s become increasingly popular over here too.
Benson may have performed here in Manchester before as part of the 2024 MTV EMAs and for a small show at The Deaf Institute, but now big fans have the added Boone of getting to watch a standalone show at one of Europe’s leading indoor entertainment venues.
Announced on Friday, 30 May, the 22-year-old will be making his way across the pond from Washington for a limited run of UK concerts, with a date at Co-op Live arena being one of just five dates.
Extending his ‘American Heart Tour’ ahead of the release of his eponymous sophomore record, with this autumn leg, Co-op Live will mark his individual visit to 0161.
The Grammy-nominated artist has earned several nods of recognition already for his first album, Fireworks & Rollerblades, which was released just last spring.
He has been described as among the current trend of male singers who fit into the American Idol and ‘Voice audition pop’ genre (a term recently coined online), along with the likes of Teddy Swims, Shawn Mendes, Alex Warren and others.
Regardless of the slightly tongue-in-cheek term, he’s become a huge hit around the world and landing him is still a big coup for the venue that has already welcomed similarly massive pop contemporaries like Swims, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and more.
In case you’re wondering just how big a deal he is over in the States, even this early in his career, his domestic headline dates sold out in seconds, quite literally…
The last time he visited Co-op Live was to perform at the most recent MTV EMAs
Benson Boone is coming to Manchester on Monday, 27 October and will be playing just two other British venues: The O2 in London (two nights) and the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
Safe to say you don’t want to miss this one if you like soaring vocals and lots of flipping.
General admission tickets go live at 10am on Thursday, 5 June, but Co-op Members can gain access via the arena’s official pre-sale window from the same time on Tuesday (3 Jun).
Daisy Jackson -
18th October 2022 
