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Glastonbury is changing the way fans can buy tickets for the world-famous festival.

While the booking process itself will remain the same, the way people join it is different.

Organisers warned hopefuls to log in “at least a few minutes” before the sale opens on 14 November, to avoid refreshing the page and not to attempt to game the system by using multiple devices.

Fans must be registered by 5pm GMT on Monday 11 November.

Tickets for the annual event at Worthy Farm in Somerset cost £373.50 plus a £5 booking fee, and are sold exclusively through the See Tickets website, with no third-party sellers involved.

The sale follows chaos earlier this year when tickets for the Oasis reunion went on sale, seeing a multitude of disappointed fans as well as those who felt cheated after being charged hundreds of pounds more for their tickets than was originally advertised.

The festival website explains: “Rather than refreshing the holding page to attempt to access the booking page, this year, when the ticket sale begins (at 6pm or 9am respectively) everyone who is already on the glastonbury.seetickets.com page will randomly be assigned a place in a queue to access the booking process.

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“Anyone who logs on once the sale has started will automatically be added to the back of the queue, so it’s important to make sure you are online ready at least a few minutes before the sale opens.

“Once you are in the queue, a progress bar will indicate how close you are to reaching the booking page.

“Please do not refresh this page or use multiple devices or tabs or you may lose your place in the queue.”

Pic: Glastonbury Festival website
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Pic: Glastonbury Festival website

Once fans reach the front of the queue and enter their registration details, they will be able to purchase a maximum of six tickets – but they will not have long to do so.

The site warns: “You will have 10 minutes to complete this page before your session expires, however tickets are not allocated at this point.”

It also cautions: “Do not attempt to minimise the tab or open new tabs. If you move away from the tab you are on your session may expire”.

The advice also says that if the amount of traffic on the website is particularly high, users may see a “reduced version of the See Tickets booking site, with a minimal holding page”.

It adds: “This does not mean the site has crashed”.

The crowd at Coldplay's headline set at Glastonbury Festival. Pic: PA
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The crowd at Coldplay’s 2024 headline set at Glastonbury Festival. Pic: PA

The site discourages users from using multiple devices to increase their chances of getting tickets, warning it could actively harm getting through.

It says: “Refreshing the page, using multiple tabs or many devices can look like suspicious behaviour and can harm your chances of getting through by triggering anti-bot software; therefore you must stick to one tab/device per IP address and please do not refresh your page once you are in the queue”.

One exception to the refresh rule is if the message, “All available tickets have now been allocated” pops up, at which point refreshing the page will mean any orders that haven’t been processed will go back on sale, and so may become available to buy.

Once the message “SOLD OUT” appears, it’s game over, and no more tickets will be released back for sale.

Festival-goers leaving at the end of the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset. Picture date: Monday July 1, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story SHOWBIZ Glastonbury. Photo credit should read: Ben Birchall/PA Wire
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Festival-goers leaving this year’s event. Pic: PA

There will be another chance, however, when any returned tickets go on resale in the spring, offering festival fans a second bite of the cherry.

While next year’s acts won’t be announced until after tickets go on sale, Oasis have already ruled themselves out of performing, telling fans: “Despite media speculation, Oasis will not be playing Glastonbury 2025 or any other festivals next year. The only way to see the band perform will be on their Oasis Live ’25 World Tour.”

2026 is likely to be a fallow year for Glastonbury (a year off), with the festival traditionally taking place four out of every five years, and the fifth year reserved for rehabilitation of the land.

Glastonbury Festival takes place from 25 to 29 June 2025.

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Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’

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Joy star James Norton on the 'postcode lottery' of IVF - and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first 'test-tube baby'

Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.

In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.

The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.

James Norton stars in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade

Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.

“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.

“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”

Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. Pic: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
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Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown

Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.

But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.

Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.

The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.

James Norton and Thomasin McKenzie star in Joy. Pic: Kerry Brown/ Netflix
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Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy

While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.

“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.

“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”

In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.

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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough

“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”

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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.

“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”

Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November

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Cillian Murphy and wife Yvonne McGuinness buy cinema Oscar winner visited as a child

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Cillian Murphy and wife Yvonne McGuinness buy cinema Oscar winner visited as a child

Cillian Murphy and his wife Yvonne McGuinness have bought a cinema the Oscar-winning actor used to visit as a child.

The couple will refurbish The Phoenix Cinema in Dingle, County Kerry, south-west Ireland, next year.

The venue, which had previously been used as a dance hall, had been in operation for more than 100 years, and on the market for three before Murphy and McGuinness bought the building.

Oppenheimer and Peaky Blinders star Murphy, from Cork, said: “I’ve been going to see films at The Phoenix since I was a young boy on summer holidays.

“My dad saw movies there when he was a young man before me, and we’ve watched many films at The Phoenix with our own kids. We recognise what the cinema means to Dingle.”

McGuinness added: “We want to open the doors again, expand the creative potential of the site, re-establishing its place in the cultural fabric of this unique town.”

FILE - Cillian Murphy poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role for "Oppenheimer" at the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 10, 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
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Murphy won big this awards season. Pic: AP

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The Phoenix is the only cinema in the tourist area of the Dingle Peninsula, and without it, the closest other movie theatre for residents of the town is in Tralee, almost 30 miles away.

It opened in 1919 and was reconstructed twice in the decades that followed, after fires damaged the building.

Its previous owners struggled to keep The Phoenix going amid the COVID-19 pandemic and shut the cinema’s doors in November 2021, citing rising costs, falling attendance and challenging exhibition terms.

Murphy took awards season by storm this year, winning a Golden Globe, a Bafta and an Oscar for his performance as the titular character in Oppenheimer.

Next year, he will reprise one of his most well-known roles by playing Tommy Shelby in a movie version of Peaky Blinders.

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Ed Sheeran ‘helped Ipswich sign player’ before appearing on stage with Taylor Swift

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Ed Sheeran 'helped Ipswich sign player' before appearing on stage with Taylor Swift

Ed Sheeran helped Ipswich Town to sign a player over the summer just before getting on stage with Taylor Swift, according to the club’s chief executive.

Mark Ashton claims the pop star got on a video call to encourage a prospective new signing to seal his move to the East Anglia outfit.

He did not reveal the player’s name, but said he is “certainly scoring a few goals” and is a fan of Sheeran, who is a minor shareholder at his hometown club.

“Ed jumped on a Zoom call with him at the training ground, just before he stepped on stage with Taylor Swift,” Ashton told a Soccerex industry event in Miami.

“Hopefully that was a key part in getting the player across the line.”

Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran perform onstage during "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour" at Wembley Stadium on August 15, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management )
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Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran at Wembley Stadium. Pic: Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images

Sheeran and pop icon Swift were on stage together on 15 August at Wembley Stadium, one day before Sammie Szmodics signed from Blackburn.

After scoring an overhead kick in Ipswich’s 2-1 win over Tottenham this month, he shared a picture of himself with Sheeran on Instagram.

“Overhead kick, Win & a smudge with big ed. GET IN THERE,” Szmodics wrote alongside the post.

Ashton joked Sheeran is now “officially a part of our recruitment team”, adding he is a “local man” and “global superstar”.

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Sheeran has been the club’s shirt sponsor since 2021 and is regularly seen at matches at the club’s Portman Road stadium.

Ipswich host giants Manchester United on Sunday, a match that’s particularly notable for being Ruben Amorim‘s first game in charge of the Red Devils.

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