How to spot Glastonbury ticket scams
Why genuine Glastonbury tickets can't be resold, the scams that appear after every sell-out, and how to protect your group's details.
Every time Glastonbury sells out, posts appear offering spare tickets. Glastonbury's ticket system makes almost all of them impossible, which is the easiest way to spot a scam: you don't need to judge whether the seller seems genuine, only whether what they're offering could exist.
Why a Glastonbury ticket can't be sold on
- Every ticket carries the holder's photo, taken from their registration.
- Tickets are non-transferable. Security checks that the person at the gate matches the photo.
- The only place to buy is See Tickets, at glastonbury.seetickets.com, in the official sales and the official resale.
- Returned tickets go back into the official resale, not to a buyer the original holder chooses.
So a ticket bought from a person, a reseller site or a social media post won't get you in, however real it looks.
Common scams
- "I can't go, you can have my ticket." Even if the ticket is real, it has someone else's photo on it.
- "I'll change the name and photo for a fee." Only the festival's systems hold registrations, and a photo can't be changed while a booking is linked to it.
- "Guaranteed tickets" or "priority queue access". Nobody can guarantee a ticket or sell you a better place in the queue.
- Fake booking sites. Pages designed to look like See Tickets, often shared in ads or messages, that take your card details.
- "Give me your registration and I'll buy for you." A stranger asking for your details, often with an upfront payment.
- Fake volunteer or job offers that ask for money to secure a place.
Red flags
- You're asked to pay by bank transfer, gift cards or cryptocurrency.
- The seller is in a hurry and says others are interested.
- The web address isn't glastonbury.seetickets.com, or is a near copy of it.
- The deal involves a ticket for a festival that hasn't announced its resale yet.
Protecting your group's details
Registration numbers and postcodes aren't passwords, but they are personal details, and they're what someone needs to book a ticket in your name. Share them only with people you know and trust to book for you. Don't post them in public groups or comments. If you use a share link from Glasto Quick Copy, send it only to your group, as anyone with the link can read it.
What a genuine booking looks like
Knowing the real process makes the fake ones stand out. A genuine Glastonbury booking always goes like this:
- You register for free on See Tickets and your photo is accepted.
- On sale day you join the queue on glastonbury.seetickets.com. Nobody can put you further forward.
- When you reach the front, you enter registration numbers and registered postcodes for up to six people and pay a deposit for each.
- See Tickets confirms your booking by email, and the balance is paid on See Tickets in the spring.
- Your ticket arrives with your own photo on it, or is handed to you on the coach for coach packages.
Anything that skips one of these steps, or adds a person or website in between, isn't how Glastonbury tickets work.
If you've been caught out
Contact your bank straight away, as they may be able to stop or reverse the payment. You can report fraud to Action Fraud, the UK's national reporting centre, and report fake sites and posts to the platform they appeared on.