How to run a Glastonbury ticket syndicate

What is a syndicate?

Glastonbury tickets sell out fast, and one booking covers up to six people. A syndicate is a bigger group of friends, and friends of friends, who all try at once on sale day. Whoever gets through buys for as many of the group as they can, then the next person through buys for the next lot. Ten people clicking have a much better chance than one.

The catch is that it only works if everyone agrees the plan before the day. Most syndicate disasters are not bad luck. They are two people buying for the same group while a third group gets nothing, because nobody said who was buying for whom.

The rest of this guide is that plan. Read it with your syndicate, argue about the order, then write the order down somewhere everyone can see it.

Before the sale

1. 1

   Everyone registers

   Every single person, including children who need a ticket, must register on the festival site with an approved photo. No registration, no ticket, and nobody can buy for you. Registration closes before the sale, so do it early and nag the stragglers.

2. 2

   Check your registration

   Log in and make sure your details are right. A registration number with the wrong postcode fails at the checkout, and it fails the whole basket of six, not just yours. That costs the buyer precious minutes and costs you a lot of goodwill.

3. 3

   Find your people

   If your group is small, join a bigger syndicate. Ask friends of friends, the office, the five-a-side team. In the weeks before the sale the Glastonbury forums and subreddits fill up with syndicate matchmaking threads and posts saying a syndicate has spaces. Three friends in a syndicate of twenty have far better odds than three friends on their own.

4. 4

   Sort out the money

   Buying for others means paying their deposit on your card, usually £100 a head plus coach fare for coach packages. Agree up front how and when everyone pays the buyer back. The same day is best, while the adrenaline is still going. Check that the buyer's card has room for six deposits, or twelve if they might go round twice.

Setting up your syndicate

Split into groups of up to six

Each group is one checkout. Groups can be the friends who want to camp together, but keep them to six. Smaller groups are fine: two threes fit in one checkout, and a person on their own fills a gap. Number the groups, because on the day "the Bristol lot" means three different things to three different people.

Collect everyone's details somewhere private

Each person in a booking needs their registration number and the postcode they registered with. Keep these in a private place: a private group chat, a shared tracker, a spreadsheet only the syndicate can open. Never post them publicly. Anyone with your registration number and postcode could use them at the checkout if they got through the queue, and a registration that has already been used is refused, which locks you and your whole checkout out on the day. Unlikely, but not worth the risk.

Agree the order

Decide before the day which group gets bought for first, second and so on. The simplest rule, and the one that survives contact with a real sale morning: whoever gets through buys for their own group first, then for the lowest numbered group that still has people in it.

Agree how you will call it

When someone gets through, they say so straight away, in one place, with which group they are buying for. When they have paid, they say so again, with the names. Silence is how groups get bought twice: the second buyer assumes the first one failed, and both of them are typing the same six numbers.

Pick one place to coordinate

A group chat moves fast on sale day and the message that matters is buried under forty others within a minute. A shared list of groups and who is buying for whom is much easier to read under pressure. Plenty of syndicates use a spreadsheet, and a spreadsheet is a lot better than nothing.

Disclosure: we built TicketSync, a tracker for exactly this. Everyone signs up with their own details, one button holds the next six for whoever is through, and the list updates on every phone at once. It is free for up to 12 people. Use whatever works for you, as long as it is one place and everyone can see it.

Do a dry run

A week before, make sure everyone can open the tracker or the sheet, knows their group number, and has the details they will need to hand. Ask three people to describe the plan back to you. If you get three different answers, you have found the problem while it is still cheap.

Sale day

Have ready

• The booking page open in good time, on the device you trust most.
• Every registration number and postcode for the groups you might buy for, in the order you agreed.
• A card with enough room for six deposits, or twelve if you are the kind of person who gets through twice.
• The chat and the list open, and your phone charged.

Follow the festival's advice on the day. The sale page usually explains how the queue works and what not to do, such as opening the page in fifteen tabs. Read it, because it changes from year to year.

When you get through

1. 1

   Say so straight away

   With the group you are buying for. Before you type a single number.

2. 2

   Enter the details carefully

   Registration numbers and postcodes, one person at a time. A zero for an O fails the lot, and the timer does not care.

3. 3

   Pay, then say it is done

   And who is now in, by name. Done and said is done. Done and quiet is a group about to be bought twice.

4. 4

   Go again

   If you have time left, check which group is next on the list and go again if the site lets you.

When two people get through at once

The one who called it first takes that group. The other moves straight to the next group on the list. Do not both buy for the same people, and do not stop to discuss it: the list already knows who is next.

When you are not through

Keep trying. Most people who get tickets get them well into the sale, not in the first minute. The queue is not a lottery you enter once; it is a lottery you enter every time the page loads.

When it sells out

Check that every booking is recorded and that everyone knows who is in and who is not. Then be kind to each other. Most of us miss out at least once, and the resale is a few months away.

Coach sale or general sale?

Some syndicates try both. If you get coach tickets, the people who got them drop out of the general sale plan, but they should still turn up on the day to help the rest of the groups get their tickets. Agree this before the coach sale so nobody is double booked, and take the coach people off the general sale list the same day.

After the sale

Pay each other back

The same day, as agreed. The buyer has just put several hundred pounds on a card for people they may only half know. Make it the easiest transfer they receive all year.

Keep an eye on the balance

Tickets are usually bought with a deposit, and the balance is due later, in the spring. If the balance is not paid in time, the ticket is cancelled and goes into the resale. Check the festival site for the date, and set a reminder on the day you get the tickets, while you still remember you have them.

Missed out?

Tickets that are not paid for, or are returned, go back on sale in a resale in the spring. It is official, through the same seller, and the same syndicate works there too. Keep the group together, keep the list, and go again.

Scams to watch for

• Anyone selling a ticket. Tickets carry the owner's name and photo and cannot be transferred. Every spare ticket for sale is a scam, including the one from a friend of a friend on Facebook.
• Joining fees or deposits to join a syndicate. Joining is always free. The only money you pay is at the checkout on the official site, or paying back the person who bought your ticket.
• Fake ticket sites. Only buy through the link on the festival's own site. If you got there from an ad or a message, close it and start from the festival's home page.
• Strangers asking for your registration details. Someone with your registration number and postcode could use them at a checkout and get you locked out of the sale. Only share them with people you trust, in a private place.
• Someone who knows someone who can get you in. No, they cannot. Nobody can.

Questions people ask