Glastonbury given improvement tips for 2024

Glastonbury Festival organisers have received a series of recommendations from Somerset Council on how to improve the event in 2024.

Following a meeting of the licensing authority’s communities scrutiny committee on 13 December, the council’s head of regulatory services Dave Coles said this year’s festival “overall was very well-run”, but added that “continuous improvement” was required.

Suggestions include improved crowd control, clearer allergen information, better walkways and additional toilets and water refill stations at The Park and The Stone Circle areas, according to the BBC-backed Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Held at Worthy Farm near Pilton, the legendary UK festival was headlined by Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John in 2023.

Organiser Glastonbury Festival Events says it accepts the council’s recommendations ahead of next year’s festival, set for 26-30 June. The lineup will be revealed in early 2024.

“We will be reviewing the feedback and recommendations given in the report, and will continue to work closely with local authority and agency partners”

“We were very pleased with the local authority’s overall feedback that the event was ‘once again well-planned and managed’,” says a spokesperson. “As always, we will be reviewing the feedback and recommendations given in the report, and will continue to work closely with local authority and agency partners throughout the planning and delivery of next year’s event.”

The festival’s long-term future at Worthy Farm was secured earlier this year after it was granted permanent planning permission by the local council. Somerset Council succeeded Mendip District Council as the event’s licensing authority following the abolition of the latter in April.

Tickets for next year’s Glastonbury sold out in just under an hour last month, with organisers saying “demand greatly exceeded supply”. All tickets for the 2024 event had been bought on 19 November by 9.57am GMT – a few minutes quicker than last year’s onsale but slower than 2019’s record of 34 minutes. Festival ticket and coach packages sold out in 25 minutes on 16 November.

General sale tickets cost £355 (€410), up from £335 in 2023 and £265 in 2019. There will be a resale of any cancelled or returned tickets in the spring.

Glastonbury recently announced it will have made payments of more than £3.7 million (€3.4m) to charitable causes and campaigns in 2023 by the end of the year. In addition, its Oxfam Crowdfunder DEC Appeal raised over £1m towards the Syria-Turkey Earthquake response, and an online auction raised £116,000 for the Trussell Trust.

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