What we know about the new 'fairer' Glastonbury ticket system - so you can get ready for resale

After a year free from ticket-induced anxiety, Glastonbury Festival is back, and, predictably, proved as popular as ever.

Despite being at its highest price yet (a cool £408 including fees), general sale tickets sold out in just 42 minutes. What's more, the festival also conducted an overhaul of its ticket system which has been subject to various bots, loopholes, and hacks over the years.

The old system meant that hopefuls could get through the ticketing system as groups of six, use multiple devices, and hand out their registration numbers to friends and family who weren't planning on attending.

In turn, it popularised a syndicate strategy, which meant that groups of six would all band together and help each other once they'd reached the finish line.

However, just one hour before this year's coach tickets went on sale on Thursday (1 October), the bombshell was dropped that registration numbers would now only be valid for one transaction and one device, creating a 'fairer' system for all.

With resale on the horizon for those who missed out, here's what you need to know about what's changed...

How does the new Glastonbury ticket system work?

Arguably the biggest change is that you now can't join the queue for Glastonbury tickets without entering a valid registration number - which also means you can only join the queue with one device.

If you attempt to join the queue with the same registration on another device, you'll land with the same queue ID (rendering your second screen pointless).

This crackdown on who can join the line also means that friends and family who aren't registered for the festival can't increase your chances on your behalf.

Once your registration has been used, it'll also be locked so that you can't buy tickets again - which is a major sting for people in syndicates, often formed of hundreds of other hopefuls.

Syndicate culture has become huge in the ticket-buying process, as a means of banding together with other groups to help each other get to the other side of those dreaded green bars before repaying the favour.

But, the new changes mean that unless you're operating on multiple registration numbers, it's virtually impossible to get back in line once your purchase is successful.

Finally, over the years there have also been rumours that being outside of the UK can increase chances of getting tickets, leading to the use of VPNs. However, this year, it would appear that if VPN use is detected, you'll be removed from the queue.

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Are there any loopholes for the new Glastonbury ticket system?

It would seem that right now, while people are figuring it out, it's largely down to luck. However, there is one sneaky tactic we've seen popping up online that might inch you a tiny bit closer to success.

If you've moved address or signed up for registration again at any point, you'll likely have two registration numbers assigned to your account rather than one.

While you can't give your other registration to someone else to use, it does mean, however, that someone else can join the queue on your behalf without needing to be registered themselves.

That means that when you're using one number, you could pass the other to a friend to unlock the website without hindering your own progress (Glastonbury's ticketing system does notoriously boot people out if they try to use the same registration twice).

Similarly, if you've already got tickets but know someone that doesn't, you can use your other registration to join the queue for them.

While you need to enter your registration, it doesn't appear that you automatically become the lead booker on a transaction.

Just remember that if you're successful, you'll need to pay someone's deposit (or full balance in the resale), and orchestrate getting that money back from them.

When is the Glastonbury 2027 resale?

There's been no date announced just yet, but in 2025, it was on Thursday 24th and Sunday 27th April, so expect it to come around a similar time.

See you in the fields.

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