Your first go at Glastonbury tickets: what ticket morning is like
A plain walk through a Glastonbury sale for first timers, from registering to the confirmation page, with what you'll see and how long each part took in 2027.
If you've never tried for Glastonbury tickets, the stories from friends can make ticket morning sound like chaos: crashing pages, endless refreshing, a group chat in meltdown. In reality it's a handful of steps, most of which happen weeks before the sale. This guide walks through them in order, using the 2027 sale as the example, so you know what to expect and what's normal. If a word is new to you, the glossary of ticket terms explains it.
Weeks before: everyone registers
You can't buy a ticket, or be booked by a friend, without a registration. It's free, done on See Tickets, and needs a recent photo of your face, which is checked by a person and later printed on your ticket. The festival says the check takes about 48 hours in the working week, and you get an email with your registration number once it's accepted.
Registration closes before each sale. For 2027 it closed at 5pm on Friday 25 September 2026, a week before the first sale. If you leave it to the last few days and your photo is rejected, you may run out of time to try again. See how registration works.
A week or two before: who books whom
One person, the lead booker, can buy up to six tickets in one go: their own and up to five friends'. For each friend they need two things: the friend's registration number and the postcode on their registration. So you don't need to reach the front yourself to get a ticket. Someone in your group can book you.
But if you're registered and free at sale time, you should queue too. Each registration gets its own place in the queue, so every extra person queueing is an extra chance for the whole group. Most groups agree that whoever gets through first books everyone. See buying tickets for a group.
The two sales
There are usually two sales a few days apart. For 2027, ticket and coach packages went on sale at 6pm on Thursday 1 October 2026, and general admission tickets at 9am on Sunday 4 October. The coach sale is an extra chance, but the ticket comes with a fixed return coach journey, so agree as a group before trying it. See coach tickets.
Ticket morning, step by step
This is how the general admission sale ran in 2027. Times are UK time.
| Time | What happened |
|---|---|
| 8.30am | A good time to be up, charged and with your group's details ready. |
| By 8.50am | In the waiting room at glastonbury.seetickets.com. The festival's advice was to be there at least 10 minutes before the start. |
| Before joining | A security check, then your registration details, before you're let into the queue. |
| 9.00am | The sale opened. People already waiting were given a place in the queue at random. Anyone arriving later went to the back. |
| While you wait | Progress shown as rows of blocks turning green, not a numbered position. |
| At the front | A booking page with a time limit to enter everyone's details and pay the deposits. |
| 9.42am | Sold out. |
What the queue looks like
Mostly, nothing happens. You'll watch a page that moves slowly or seems not to move at all, sometimes for a long time. That's normal, and it doesn't mean the site has crashed or you've lost your place. Leave it alone: refreshing, extra tabs and extra devices don't help. What each screen means, and what to do if one looks wrong, is in how the queue works.
What happens at the front
If you get through, the booking page opens and a timer starts. You enter your own details and each friend's registration number and postcode, check that the names shown are the people you expect, then pay a deposit for each ticket: £100 per ticket for 2027. Tickets aren't yours until the payment has gone through.
When the confirmation page appears, screenshot it and tell your group straight away, so nobody else books the same people. The timers, the cards that work and what to do if something fails are all in the checkout guide.
How it usually ends
Be ready for this: most people who try don't get a ticket. Demand is far higher than the number of tickets, and every recent sale has sold out in under an hour. If you see "SOLD OUT", every ticket in that sale has gone, and there's nothing you did wrong. Close the page, and turn your attention to the spring resale.
Things first timers often don't know
- Arriving early matters, but only up to the start. In 2027, everyone in the waiting room before 9am got a random place. Being there at 8.20 instead of 8.50 didn't put you further forward.
- Reaching the front isn't the same as having a ticket. Tickets are only allocated once payment goes through.
- Tickets can't be passed on. Each one carries the holder's photo, so the only ticket that works is one booked against your own registration.
- The deposit isn't the whole price. For 2027 the ticket is £408, with the £308 balance due between 1 and 7 April 2027. Miss that window and the ticket is cancelled.
- You don't have to be online to be booked. If a friend gets through, they can book you with your number and postcode, wherever you are.
After the morning
If you got a ticket, your next job is the balance in April. See what to do between now and June. If you didn't, you're in the majority. Keep your registration up to date and read how the spring resale works.