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The annual mad scramble for Glastonbury tickets is almost upon us.

The first of the festival’s roughly 135,000 spots are finally set go on sale today after the initial early November sale dates were pushed back due to some confusion over the registration process.

Tickets to the iconic event at Worthy Farm in Somerset, which will take place from 26 to 30 June next year, are only available online and millions already registered to apply.

When the time comes, here’s everything you need to know before trying to get tickets:

If you haven’t registered yet, you’re out of the running for now

Glastonbury’s date changes meant you could still register for buying tickets up until 5pm on Monday.

Unfortunately if you missed that deadline, you won’t be able to apply for tickets.

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However, you will still be in with a chance if you register before April 2024, when Glastonbury will have a number of resale dates, selling tickets that have been cancelled (dates yet to be confirmed).

You can apply for that by clicking here.

Where can I get tickets?

Tickets can be bought exclusively at glastonbury.seetickets.com once they become available.

No other site or agency will be allocated tickets, so if you see anyone else claiming to have Glastonbury tickets available for purchase, it’s most likely a scam.

What types of tickets are available and when?

Tickets including coach travel become available from 6pm today.

General admission tickets go on sale at 9am on Sunday 19 November.

There will be another opportunity to get tickets during the resale dates in April 2024.

If you take the ticket plus coach option, getting the coach that you select is mandatory and you will only receive your ticket once you are on that coach.

This means that you can’t pay extra for the ticket and coach option just to secure a ticket early and then not use the transport.

You can also only book ticket and travel options from one destination – meaning if you are buying more than one ticket on 16 November, everyone that you are buying for in your transaction needs to get the same coach to Glastonbury.

Children aged 12 and under when the festival takes place are admitted free of charge and do not need a ticket, nor do they need to register.

You will need to reserve additional coach seats for the children if booking a ticket plus coach travel package, though.

Why does Glastonbury make people register in advance?

It’s to avoid ticket touting, Glastonbury says.

All tickets are personalised with a photo of the ticket holder and cannot be transferred to another recipient.

This makes it far more difficult to resell them at a higher price, which is often a major problem seen at other festivals and concerts.

How many tickets can I buy?

You can buy up to six tickets at a time, but all of the people you’re buying the tickets for need to be registered with Glastonbury.

You will need their registration numbers and postcodes as well as your own.

How does the booking process work?

Once tickets go up for sale, all potential buyers are sent to a holding page.

Glastonbury says users are held at the holding page until there is space on the booking page. The holding page refreshes every 20 seconds to look for a space on the booking page.

You may see a reduced, bare-looking version of the booking page once you gain entry.

The organisers say this is intentional in order to cope with high traffic and does not mean the site has crashed, so be sure not to refresh or leave the page.

Once you reach the first page of the booking site, you will need to enter the registration number and registered postcode for yourself and the other people you are attempting to book tickets for.

When you proceed, the details you have provided will be displayed on the next page.

Once you have double checked all of your information is correct, click ‘confirm’ to enter the payment page, where you will need to check/amend your billing address, confirm your payment information, accept the terms and conditions, and complete the check out within the allocated time.

Giving yourself the best chance

Those who are registered and raring to go should remember to get the basics right.

Here are the must-haves if you want to stand any chance of getting a ticket:

Good internet connection. You won’t stand a chance without solid broadband.
Timekeeping. Make sure you are on the tickets page at exactly 6pm on 16 November or 9am on 19 November – even if it means setting an unwelcome alarm on Sunday.
No distractions. There are time limits during the booking process. If you reach the stage where you have been assigned tickets, you will still need to check/amend your billing address, confirm your payment information, accept the terms and conditions, and complete the check out within the allocated timeframe.
Be ready to approve your payment. There is a chance – especially if you are paying for multiple tickets – that you will have to pass additional security questions from your card issuer. Have a device on hand to ensure you are ready to do this swiftly.
Don’t give up. Until you see the ominous ‘SOLD OUT’ display on the site, there is still a chance. Shortly before that point, there will be a message saying ‘all available tickets have now been allocated,’ which users often think means their chances are up. What it actually means is that orders are being processed for all the tickets that are available. But if somebody whose order is being processed doesn’t take our previous advice and runs out of time, their loss could be your gain.

Does using multiple devices actually help?

You may have seen photos shared on social media of individuals sitting in front of multiple phones, laptops and iPads that are all on the tickets loading page.

Glastonbury’s website advises that running multiple devices simultaneously is “a waste of valuable resources, and doesn’t reflect the ethos of the festival”.

“Please stick to one device and one tab,” it adds, “so that you can focus on entering your details without confusing your browser and help us make the ticket sale as quick and stress free as possible for all.”

In case your priorities aren’t the festival’s ethos or making the ticketing process easy for everyone, it is worth noting that you would need to be very confident in your broadband’s capabilities to use multiple devices.

For your own sake, you may be better off using one device with concentrated connection rather than several using it in weaker doses.

What about multiple tabs on one device?

It was alluded to in the previous section, but Glastonbury definitively says using multiple tabs will not increase your chances of success.

In fact, it could do the opposite.

Glastonbury’s website reads: “Attempting to book tickets online using multiple browser tabs can confuse the ticket sales process and cause your transaction to fail.

“We strongly advise that you use just one browser tab when trying to book tickets, in order to avoid possible problems with your transaction.”

How much do tickets cost and do I pay up front?

Tickets for Glastonbury 2024 will cost £355, plus a £5 booking fee.

If you are buying tickets on 16 November, you will still need to pay a £75 deposit and the £5 booking fee along with your coach fare.

When purchasing general admission tickets on Sunday 5 November, you will just have to pay a £75 deposit and £5 booking fee.

Keep in mind, this is the cost per ticket, so if you are buying six tickets, you will need to pay the deposit and booking fee for each one.

You will then need to pay the remaining cost of your ticket(s) in the first week of April 2024. That’s £280 per ticket.

How many people will be trying to get tickets?

More than 2.5 million people tried to get their hands on the 135,000 tickets on offer last year, according to National Broadband.

The ticketing service which deals with Glastonbury, See Tickets, experienced technical problems last year during the sale window on 6 November, later apologising to people who had “issues trying to book”.

They didn’t specify whether this was due to the amount of website traffic.

Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis apologised afterwards to the “huge number” of people who missed out because “demand far outstripped supply”.

We know from Ms Eavis that some 2.4 million people were registered for Glastonbury tickets at the end of 2019, too, so this level of demand is not an anomaly.

When will I receive my ticket?

General admission tickets will be sent out in late-May or June 2024 to those in the UK and the EU.

People who bought a ticket plus coach package will have to wait until they are on their coach to be handed their tickets.

If you live outside of the UK and EU and buy a ticket, it will be available for box office collection unless specified otherwise.

What if I get tickets but can’t make it to Glastonbury?

Don’t panic; that’s what the resale window is for.

If you realise after buying tickets that you cannot attend, simply don’t pay the remaining £280 that you owe per ticket before the deadline: 11.59pm on 7 April 2024.

Your deposit will automatically be refunded to you, minus a £25 administration charge.

There’s an extra £15 coach cancellation fee on ticket and coach bookings.

Your ticket will then be resold to someone else during the next window.

You can also request a refund any time before Friday 3 May 2024 via See Tickets’ Customer Service Page.

From 3 May onwards, tickets are non-refundable.

Do not attempt to sell tickets on yourself. As stated previously, all tickets are personalised and cannot be transferred to another recipient.

What is included with a ticket?

Here is a list of everything Glastonbury says is included with a ticket:

• Entry to the festival, with over 3,000 performances across more than 100 stages
• Five nights camping (with no early entry fees)
• Free programme
• Free mobile phone charging
• Free on-site newspaper
• Free mobile app
• Free firewood
• Kidzfield, where all entertainment, rides and activities are free of charge
• Support for Oxfam, Greenpeace, WaterAid and “hundreds of other worthy causes”
• Funds to improve the festival’s infrastructure and environmental impact

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Coldplay reschedule Wembley Stadium shows over Tube strikes

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Coldplay reschedule Wembley Stadium shows over Tube strikes

Coldplay have rescheduled the final two dates of their 10-show run at Wembley Stadium because of strike action on the London Underground.

Rail, Maritime And Transport (RMT) union walkouts next Sunday and Monday make it impossible for fans to get to and from the venue safely, the band said in a statement.

The completion of their Wembley run will see Coldplay become the first act to play 10 dates at the national football stadium in the same year, knocking current joint record holders Taylor Swift and Take That from the top spot.

Both Swift and Take That have played eight Wembley shows in a single year.

Industrial action on the Tube will take place at different times from 5 September for seven days, impacting Coldplay’s gigs – which are part of the band’s eco-friendly Music Of The Spheres world tour – on 7 and 8 September.

A statement from the band posted on social media read: “We’re sorry to announce that, due to planned industrial action on the London Underground, we’ve been forced to reschedule our final two concerts of the current Wembley Stadium run.

“Without a Tube service, it’s impossible to get 82,000 people to the concert and home again safely, and therefore no event licence can be granted for the nights of 7th and 8th September.

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“To avoid cancelling the shows, our only option is to reschedule.”

They said the show on 7 September would move to 6 September and the show on 8 September would move to 12 September.

The band added: “We’re very sorry for the inevitable disappointment, frustration and inconvenience that this situation causes.”

Coldplay said tickets would remain valid for their rescheduled date, but any fans who are unable to attend their rescheduled show can get a full refund on their ticket from their point of purchase before noon on 2 September.

Returned tickets are to go on general sale at 11am on 3 September via Ticketmaster.

The band confirmed shows on 30 and 31 August, and 3 September and 4 September would go ahead as scheduled.

Some 10% of the band’s proceeds from the Wembley shows will be donated to the Music Venue Trust to help support grassroots UK venues and upcoming artists.

Fronted by Chris Martin, Coldplay formed in 1997, and have gone on to achieve two UK number one singles and 10 UK number one albums. They are best known for songs such as Yellow, Fix You, A Sky Full Of Stars and Viva La Vida.

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Jessie J cancels tour dates ahead of second breast cancer surgery

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Jessie J cancels tour dates ahead of second breast cancer surgery

Jessie J has been forced to rearrange or cancel all upcoming tour dates as she will be having a second operation as part of her treatment for breast cancer.

The 37-year-old announced in June that she had been diagnosed with early breast cancer. She had her first operation later in the same month.

The singer, whose real name is Jessica Cornish, was due to tour the UK and Europe in October, before gigs in the US in November.

In a video posted on Instagram, she’s now told fans: “Unfortunately, I have to have a second surgery, nothing too serious, but it has to be done before the end of the year and unfortunately, that falls right in the middle of a tour that I had booked.”

The UK and Europe dates have been postponed until April next year while the US tour has been cancelled.

“So that is what it is, and I’m sorry,” the performer said. “I feel frustrated and sad, but also it is what it is, and I need to be better.

“I need to be healed, and I know this is the right decision to make. So I’m postponing the tour till next year.”

The star has asked fans to “please bear with us for the US tour”, adding that it’s “something that I want to do, but when the time is right”.

“You guys know how much I want to do all of it, but I just can’t,” she said. “And I have to be realistic.”

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Jessie J has battled numerous health issues, including being diagnosed with a heart condition when she was eight years old and suffering a minor stroke aged 18.

The singer-songwriter has had three number one songs in the UK singles chart, with Price Tag and Domino – both released in 2011 – and 2014’s Bang Bang, a collaboration with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj.

She won the Critics’ Choice prize at the 2011 BRITs and bagged four Mobo awards in the same year.

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‘I’m shocked at how fragile I am still’: Cumberbatch and Colman on protecting their sanity from perils of social media

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'I'm shocked at how fragile I am still': Cumberbatch and Colman on protecting their sanity from perils of social media

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch says he’s shocked at how “fragile” he still is – despite years in the spotlight and success in the industry.

It might seem like the Doctor Strange star and The Crown actress Olivia Colman have it all when it comes to money and success – but they are also human like the rest of us.

The pair lead the cast of new satirical black comedy The Roses, which sees picture-perfect couple Ivy and Theo Rose – a rising star chef and ambitious architect – raise their two children in California, while chasing their own dreams.

‘I am shocked at how fragile I am’

But behind its dark humour and comic language, the film also looks at the realities of power imbalance, insecurity and wounded pride – in even the strongest of relationships.

And 49-year-old Cumberbatch – whose character faces a major setback in his career – tells Sky News that in real life the glare of social media only intensifies those type of situations.

“I am shocked at how fragile I am still.

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“I don’t go anywhere near it [social media] because of that.

“It’s like walking into a place where people want to marry you or kill you. Those extremes.

“I think we will get to a stage, a corporate culture that’s now manifested around it where people are obliged to do that in order to sell their lives, and therefore their brand and what they do for a living.”

Co-star Colman – who’s long-shunned the online world – agrees.

Cumberbatch and Colman in The Roses. Pic: Jaap Buitendijk/ Searchlight Pictures
Image:
Cumberbatch and Colman in The Roses. Pic: Jaap Buitendijk/ Searchlight Pictures

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“I’m afraid I am very thin-skinned.

“I don’t look at any of it. My husband will look at a review and if it’s nice he’ll show me – but if it’s anything mean he knows to just go ‘don’t look – don’t look.’

“You just have to learn to be thicker-skinned.

“But actually, I think we need people who are sensitive and kind.”

‘Don’t do it… delete it all’

Colman – now 51, and whose leading role in The Favourite bagged her an Academy Award in 2019 – says no amount of experience and success can shield her from criticism.

“My advice to a young’un – sort of dipping their toe into the world of social media for the first time is absolutely don’t do it.

“Delete it all. If you want a happy life, don’t have any of it. I’ve never had it.”

The movie – directed by Meet The Parents’ Jay Roach with The Favourite screenwriter Tony McNamara – also calls into question the notion of success – asking, is it really possible to have it all?

Or is sacrifice inevitable when it comes to spinning the plates of a high-flying career, marriage and parenthood?

Cumberbatch admits “you can’t do it all without there being a cost”.

“You just have to weigh up what those balances are,” he adds.

Colman says “there are I suppose little sacrifices along the way” – from both sides of a relationship.

The comedy drama offers a fresh take on Warren Adler’s novel The War Of The Roses – and the 1989 hit film adaptation- starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Colman and Cumberbatch – both producers on the film – insist they weren’t daunted by that though.

“We wanted to find a project to do together, and we have utter respect for the iconic status of the film and book,” explains Cumberbatch.

“Hopefully this will have its own place in the culture – it’s very different, it’s not a remake – it’s a reimagined jumping-on point.”

“But beyond that, it’s very different,” adds Colman.

Former Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa and Barbie’s Kate McKinnon also form the cast.

The Roses is out in UK cinemas now.

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