Glastonbury Tickets: Transfers, Refunds & FAQs

Glastonbury Festival is more than just an event; it's an experience, a pilgrimage for music lovers and culture enthusiasts from across the globe. Securing a ticket is often half the battle, but understanding the intricate rules surrounding their management – from transfers and refunds to delivery and special arrangements – is equally crucial. As the excitement builds for the 2013 festival, clarity on these policies is paramount to ensuring a smooth journey to Worthy Farm. This comprehensive guide aims to address the most common questions and provide a detailed understanding of the official guidelines, ensuring you're fully prepared for the magic that awaits.

The Personal Touch: Why Your Glastonbury Ticket Isn't Transferable

One of the most fundamental rules of Glastonbury Festival ticketing, designed to combat touting and ensure fairness, is the strict policy on ticket transferability. Unlike many other events, your Glastonbury Festival ticket is personalised. This means it is uniquely linked to you, featuring your photograph as part of the ticket itself. This crucial security measure ensures that only the registered ticket holder can gain entry to the festival.

Therefore, if you've paid the full balance for your ticket but find yourself unable to attend the festival, you absolutely cannot give your ticket to a friend or any other recipient. Any attempts to transfer or sell your personalised ticket outside of the official channels are strictly prohibited. The festival organisers and See Tickets actively monitor for suspicious activity, and any tickets suspected of being offered for unauthorised sale will be cancelled without hesitation. Furthermore, admission to the Festival will be refused to anyone attempting to enter with a ticket that has been compromised in this manner. This stringent approach is in place to protect genuine festival-goers and uphold the integrity of the ticketing system.

Navigating Refunds: Your Options Before the Deadline

Life can be unpredictable, and sometimes, even with the best intentions, circumstances change, making it impossible to attend an eagerly anticipated event like Glastonbury. If you find yourself in this situation and require a refund for your tickets, there is a specific process to follow, but it comes with a strict deadline.

For the 2013 festival, the deadline to request a refund was before midnight on May 3rd, 2013. To initiate a refund request, you would need to contact See Tickets, the official ticket vendor. This could be done either online by visiting their customer service portal at www.seetickets.com/customerservice or by telephoning See Tickets directly on 0844 412 4626. It's important to note that a £10 administration charge is retained from all refunded tickets to cover processing costs. For any specific refund enquiries, the dedicated email address [email protected] was available to assist ticket holders. Adhering to this deadline and process was essential to successfully obtain a refund for your festival ticket.

Beyond the Deadline: Ticket Cancellation Protection

What happens if the May 3rd refund deadline has passed and you suddenly find yourself unable to attend Glastonbury? For those who did not manage to request a refund before this cut-off date, options become extremely limited. Generally, a refund after May 3rd, 2013, was only possible if you had proactively taken out ticket cancellation protection at the time of your original purchase.

This protection acts as an insurance policy. However, it's crucial to understand that such policies come with specific terms and conditions. A refund would only be granted if your reason for not being able to attend the festival was explicitly covered by the terms of that policy. Common reasons covered might include illness, bereavement, or certain travel disruptions, but each policy varies. If you had not opted for ticket cancellation protection, or if your reason for being unable to attend was not covered by the terms of your protection policy, then unfortunately, you would not have been able to claim a refund after the May 3rd deadline. This highlights the importance of considering such protection at the point of purchase, particularly for an event like Glastonbury, where tickets are highly sought after and policies are stringent.

The Myth of a Second Resale & Coach Package Opportunities

Following the initial ticket sales and the refund period, a common question among hopeful attendees is whether a second resale of general admission tickets will occur. For the 2013 festival, the clear answer was no. The number of tickets expected to be cancelled and subsequently refunded was anticipated to be very few. Consequently, there was no plan for another general admission ticket resale.

However, there was a glimmer of hope for those still wishing to attend: See Tickets did release a limited number of additional coach packages. These final few coach packages were made available during the week commencing May 6th, 2013, exclusively via glastonbury.seetickets.com. Crucially, these releases were not announced publicly. Anyone keen to secure one was advised to constantly monitor See Tickets' website. These packages were extremely limited in number, typically becoming available only on select routes where a cancellation had freed up a seat on an existing coach. A vital point to remember for these coach packages was their non-transferable and non-refundable nature. Festival-goers were strongly advised to book a coach package only if they were 100% certain they could travel on the specific coach booked, as travel on that coach was mandatory travel in order to receive your festival tickets. Booking a coach package that required unnecessary additional travel to the festival was also discouraged, emphasising efficiency and genuine need.

Special Travel Arrangements: Children, PAs, and Accessibility

Glastonbury aims to be an inclusive event, and this extends to arrangements for children and personal assistants (PAs). If you were planning to bring a child aged 12 or under, who does not require an entry ticket for the festival, or if you were applying for a PA ticket from the disabled access coordinator, and required additional coach travel for them, specific steps needed to be followed. Once you had completed your main booking, you should have contacted See Tickets via email at [email protected]. Your email needed to include your Ticket & Coach reference number, a contact number, and your name. See Tickets would then call you back to facilitate the purchase of these additional coach seats, for which standard fares applied.

It is important to understand that all passengers, including children aged 12 and under, and PAs, were required to purchase a valid coach ticket in order to travel. Under no circumstances could a coach package ticket be exchanged for a standard admission ticket. While efforts were made to accommodate, coach places were limited, so contacting See Tickets as soon as possible was advised. A significant note regarding accessibility: See Tickets could not guarantee that any particular coach would have the required wheelchair access and storage facilities. Therefore, if you were travelling to Glastonbury with a wheelchair, booking coach travel was generally not recommended in this instance, suggesting alternative transport might be more suitable.

Festival Essentials: Campervans, Tipis, and Car Parking

Beyond the general admission ticket, many festival-goers opt for specific camping or parking arrangements. For the 2013 festival, popular options like campervan pitches and tipi accommodation were completely sold out. These sought-after facilities typically sell out very quickly due to high demand, so early booking is always essential in future years.

However, car park tickets remained available. For those planning to drive to the festival, car park tickets could be booked either online or by calling 0844 412 4626. Securing a car park ticket in advance is highly advisable to ensure a designated parking spot upon arrival, streamlining the entry process and avoiding last-minute complications.

Your Ticket's Journey: Delivery Information and Tracking

The anticipation builds as the festival approaches, and a key question for all ticket holders is: when will my tickets arrive? For the 2013 festival, tickets were generally expected to be received at least 14 days before the festival commenced, allowing ample time for delivery.

The dispatch process was staggered based on location and ticket type:

• International ticket dispatch was already underway by May 30th, 2013.
• UK ticket dispatch was scheduled to begin the week commencing May 6th, 2013.
• Coach ticket dispatch, due to the mandatory travel component, began slightly later, during the week commencing May 20th, 2013.

To keep track of your order, See Tickets provided an online order tracker. To access this, you would need your email address and your booking reference number (which is distinct from your registration number). Once you had your tracking reference, you could monitor your ticket order via Royal Mail's website at www.royalmail.com. If you weren't home when your tickets arrived, Royal Mail would leave a card detailing how to arrange re-delivery (including weekend options) or how to pick them up from your local collection office. For bookings with multiple tickets, all tickets were dispatched to the address provided for the first name on your booking. However, if balances were paid separately for individual tickets, each person would receive their own ticket dispatched to their respective addresses.

When Tickets Don't Arrive: Crucial Steps and No Replacements

While the dispatch process is generally efficient, unforeseen issues can sometimes occur. If you had not received your tickets by 9 am on Monday, June 24th, 2013, it was crucial to immediately contact See Tickets on 0844 412 4626. Prompt action was essential to resolve any delivery issues before the festival began.

However, a critical policy to be aware of is that if tickets were successfully delivered to ticket holders and subsequently became lost, destroyed, or misplaced, the festival and See Tickets could not replace them. This firm stance underscores the importance of keeping your tickets safe and secure once they arrive, as there is absolutely no replacements for lost tickets. This policy is in place due to the personalised nature of the tickets and the need to prevent fraudulent activity.

Addressing Your Delivery Address: Limits on Changes

The address your tickets are sent to is the one you specified at the time of booking. For security purposes, a signature is required at the point of delivery to ensure the tickets reach the intended recipient. Once the ticket dispatch process begins, the ability to change the delivery address becomes extremely limited, if not impossible. For the 2013 festival, once tickets were in the process of dispatch, See Tickets was no longer able to facilitate any changes of delivery address. This highlights the importance of ensuring that your delivery information is accurate and up-to-date at the very moment you complete your booking. Double-checking these details can prevent significant stress and complications closer to the festival date.

Essential Contacts and Further Assistance

For any questions or concerns regarding your Glastonbury Festival ticket booking, there are clear channels for assistance. The primary resource for information about your specific booking, including details on ticket dispatch, is the See Tickets customer service portal. You can access this online at www.seetickets.com/customerservice by using your booking reference number and either your email address or postcode.

It's vital to remember that all public ticket sales for Glastonbury are managed exclusively by See Tickets. The Festival Office itself does not have direct access to See Tickets' booking system or individual booking information. Therefore, if your enquiry pertains specifically to your booking – such as payment, delivery status, or personal details – your first and only point of contact should be See Tickets. You can reach them on 0844 412 4626 or by post at: See Tickets, PO Box 9091, Nottingham, NG1 9DA.

Conversely, if you require general information about festival tickets that is not related to a specific booking – for instance, broad policy questions already covered on the official website or in comprehensive guides like this one – and you cannot find the information you need, then contacting the Festival Office would be appropriate. They are equipped to assist with general information about Festival tickets, whereas See Tickets handles all booking-specific queries.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about Glastonbury Festival tickets, summarised for quick reference based on the 2013 policies:

Can I transfer my Glastonbury Festival ticket?

No, Glastonbury Festival tickets are personalised with your photo and cannot be transferred to another person. Any attempt to do so may result in ticket cancellation and refusal of entry.

Can I get a refund if I can't make it to the festival?

Yes, you could request a refund through See Tickets (online or phone) before midnight on May 3rd, 2013. A £10 administration fee was deducted from all refunded tickets.

What happens to refunded tickets after May 3rd? Will there be another resale?

Very few tickets were expected to be cancelled, so there was no general resale. However, See Tickets did release a limited number of coach packages unannounced during the week commencing May 6th, 2013.

Can I book a coach seat for my child or Deaf and Disabled PA to travel with me if they don’t have a Festival ticket?

Yes, if you have a festival ticket and are bringing a child (12 or under, not requiring a festival ticket) or a PA, you could contact [email protected] after your booking to purchase additional coach seats. All passengers, including children and PAs, must have a valid coach ticket.

Can I still book a campervan, tipi, or car park ticket?

For 2013, campervan and tipi tickets were sold out. Car park tickets remained available and could be booked online or by calling 0844 412 4626.

When will my tickets be sent out?

Tickets were expected at least 14 days before the festival. International dispatch was underway, UK dispatch began week commencing May 6th, and coach ticket dispatch began week commencing May 20th, 2013.

Can I change the address my tickets are being sent to?

Once ticket dispatch had begun, no changes to the delivery address could be facilitated. Tickets were sent to the address specified during booking and required a signature upon delivery.

Can I get a refund after May 3rd?

Only if you purchased ticket cancellation protection and your reason for not attending was covered by the terms of that policy. Without it, or if your reason wasn't covered, no refund was possible after the deadline.

What if I still have questions about my ticket booking?

For specific booking enquiries, contact See Tickets online at www.seetickets.com/customerservice or by phone at 0844 412 4626. For general festival ticket information not related to a specific booking, contact the Festival Office.

Understanding these policies is paramount to a stress-free Glastonbury experience. While the anticipation of the festival is immense, taking the time to familiarise yourself with the rules around tickets, refunds, and delivery ensures that your journey to Worthy Farm is as smooth as possible. Plan ahead, read the guidelines carefully, and act promptly to secure your place and prepare for an unforgettable adventure. Enjoy the magic!

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