Glastonbury 2027 Ticket Prices Climb to All-Time Highs

Tickets to Glastonbury’s 2027 edition will cost a record high of more than £408 a piece amid a widespread pattern of price hikes to major music events.

This year has been a fallow one for Glastonbury, but organizers of the UK’s biggest festival have now confirmed that ticket prices will hit their highest levels to date, topping £408 ($550) for the first time in the festival’s history. And that’s not even factoring in the £5 booking fee and any add-ons.

The cost of a general admission Glastonbury ticket has increased by about 6% since 2023, following a massive spike of around 26% from 2019 to 2023, thanks in no small part to the COVID pandemic. But the pandemic isn’t wholly to blame, and we’ve certainly seen prices increase for concerts and music festivals the world over in the last few years.

However, there’s another major factor at play in the UK: Brexit.

“[W]ith Brexit it’s not necessarily about cheap labor; it’s skilled labor—we lost really great backstage crew and technical crews that went back to Europe and haven’t come back,” said John Rostron, CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals. “So [organizers] have had to invest in skilling up and training people.”

But fans are understandably upset, as Glastonbury is already the UK’s most expensive festival. Coupled with the cost-of-living crisis and the fact that Glastonbury hasn’t even announced the 2027 edition’s headliners, complaints about the ticket prices are steadily mounting. Some would-be attendees are calling the prices “unreasonable” and “a scam,” and many feel they’ve been priced out entirely.

“The last time I went was 2009. It was £165. It felt affordable, worth every penny,” shared one fan. “With inflation, sure, it should be £300 now. I get it; it’s a charity event. But £400? That doesn’t feel right or fair.”

“Everything in the UK is getting more expensive and lower quality,” vented another. “How are people accepting this? Nothing in this country makes sense anymore.”

Unfortunately, that’s a sentiment shared by many beyond the UK, as the music industry has watched tickets to concerts, festivals, and other live events increase well beyond typical inflation, even with the pandemic taken into consideration.

Given the multitude of factors involved, ticket reform advocates are understandably calling for serious action to address the problem across the US, UK, and Europe. But combined with broader economic uncertainty, will that even be enough?