‘We got into Glastonbury for free – here’s how we did it’-Kimberley Bond-Entertainment – Metro

There’s plenty of ways you can attend Glastonbury without spending a penny (Picture: Anna Barclay/Getty Images)

Next week, over 200,000 people will descend on a usually sleepy corner of Somerset for one of the world’s best-loved festivals: Glastonbury.

Those lucky enough to beat the notorious ticket queues will be treated to performances from the likes of Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and SZA, with Shania Twain performing in the traditional Sunday Legends slot.

But those who missed out during general sale and resale will surely be feeling huge FOMO – despite the weather expected to be ‘wetter than average’ at the Worthy Farm festival.

However, there are legitimate (and a few not-so-legitimate) ways to ensure your spot at the five-day bonanza without necessarily having to shell out the £335 ticket prices.

Here, Metro.co.uk speaks to three people who have got into Glastonbury for free and how they did it.

Amanda Ayers is a 30-year-old digital PR consultant, who has worked at Worthy Farm as a litter-picker.

Amanda goes to Glasto as a litter-picker (Picture: Supplied)

From make-up to rucksacks, money and warm bottles of pee… I’ve seen it all when it comes to litter-picking at Glastonbury.

You’d think working on picking up rubbish at one of the world’s most legendary festivals would mean bagging wrappers and rubbish, but in reality, you find things you’d least expect.

Among our weird and wonderful discoveries, we’ve seen stacks of empty backpacks abandoned every year. I found a brand new Mac lipstick once, which I bet someone was sad to have dropped. Of course, we don’t get to keep anything we come across – everything is recycled or donated to charity.

But it’s when everyone deserts Worthy Farm on Monday that we find the really weird stuff. Sometimes, whole camping sets are just abandoned. And we find a lot of cash and banknotes that have been dropped. We do also find a lot of bottles of urine, for people who get caught short. It can be absolutely vile.

It was working at another festival that pushed me to apply to Glasto. One of the first gigs I worked at was BBC Radio One’s Big Weekend when it came to Carlisle, my hometown, in 2011 with my friend. We were only working the bar, but it was so much fun and it gave me a real taste for working festivals.

Litter-pickers are responsible for keeping the farming land clean (Picture: Supplied)

My aunt lives near Glastonbury, and she’s been working with the recycling team at the event for quite a few years now, before moving over to the litter pickers. She always puts a group together so I joined and I’ve been doing it with her ever since – and I love it.

You pay the equivalent of a ticket to do litter-picking, but once you’ve done all your shifts, you get your money back, so it doesn’t technically cost you anything. We choose to give our money to the Southampton Hospital Charity, as it means alot to our family.

For a volunteer gig, your shifts really aren’t too bad. We’re expected to work Friday until Monday, and we’re each allocated an area that we have to be responsible for. It does mean early starts – you work from 6am to 12pm picking up rubbish, and because Glastonbury is so big on recycling, we have to be careful to make sure we put the right things in the right bags.

In 2019, the organisers of Glastonbury banned plastic, and we noticed far fewer bottles that we picked up. Because people love the event so much, festivalgoers do tend to respect the rules.

Amanda’s aunt organises a team of litter pickers to keep Glastonbury clean every year (Picture: Supplied)

After we finish our shift at about midday, we’re completely free to do whatever we want. We don’t miss any of the music at all and we can still see all the headliners, as most of the stages open between 11.30am and midday. We can stay up as late as we like and enjoy what’s around – as long as we can get up on time for our 6am shift start.

We actually have things quite comfortable as volunteers, compared to most of the campers. We’re given our own camping ground away from other festival goers complete with our own showers. We also get two food tokens a day so we can have whatever we want from the volunteer’s food tent. It’s all vegetarian and vegan, and you can get baguettes and cakes and fruit. You can get breakfast, like a little veggie fry up, or you can get an evening meal instead. It’s really good and you feel looked after.

I’d definitely advise people who have always wanted to go to Glastonbury but have struggled to ever get tickets to give litter-picking a go. You can sign up through Glastonbury directly, and before the line-up is announced, but there are numerous ways to get in through other volunteering methods, such as through Oxfam and Water Aid.

It’s just a really fulfilling way to go to a festival, and it’s nice to know you’re helping the farm. Everyone is so lovely to you when they find out you’re a volunteer. I enjoy it so much, I think I’d rather do litter-picking every year than just buying my ticket.

Alex, 35, managed to sneak into the festival in 2011. He reveals how he pulled it off.

Alex and his older brother snuck into Glastonbury in the small hours in 2011(Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

My brother, George, used to break into Glastonbury every year. He’d get to know loads of volunteers or people doing security, and they’d do the ‘wristband shuffle’ – where lots of people would pass around and use one wristband to ensure their entry – but now they’ve apparently added ID codes to wristbands so you can’t do that anymore.

Anyway, in 2011, George let me know he was going to be sneaking into the festival, and as I didn’t get my hands on a ticket, I decided to join him. I drove down from Cheltenham, where I lived, and found him on Wednesday night at about 7pm near Castle Cary station.

We didn’t really have a concrete plan to ensure we’d get in, but we’d done some prep: we bought some high-vis vests so we looked as if we worked there, and we waited until it got dusky so we had more of a chance of getting through the gates.

I didn’t have George’s easy confidence believing we’d just saunter in, and our attempts were dashed when we tried to get into the first pedestrian gate – we were spotted straight away and asked for tickets. But we were unfazed, and quickly decided on another route.

As the festival is so popular, Glastonbury is heavily guarded(Picture: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

There’s a huge perimeter fence around Glastonbury and next to the fence is a dirt track for service vehicles, which can enter through various gate points around the perimeter. So, we decided to see if we could sneak in behind a service vehicle.

We were lucky as we managed to tail a 4×4, sneaking in behind it undetected, as it turned into a gate. It meant we made it into the the staff section of Glastonbury – but now we had to actually get into the fun part of the festival.

Because we had our high vis vests, we just walked around with purpose, as if we were meant to be there, but we couldn’t help but feel on edge as people watched us. We decided to make a run for it into the main site.

We didn’t know where we were going and we turned down whichever path which looked like it was heading in the right direction. While we were blindly searching for the right way to go, I did get a buzz from running through: it was an adrenaline rush. We could see the staff who were meant to be there were sat outside their motorhome as it was around 9pm at this point. They could see and my brother and I running past, and they probably knew what we were doing, but I don’t think they cared – they weren’t being paid enough money to do anything about it so they just let us crack on.

The festival is guarded by large fences (Picture: Matt Cardy)

After jumping over three or four metal fences, we reached a bigger, 10-foot fence. It was, quite literally, the final hurdle. George is more athletic than me – he literally just did a run up and vaulted it. I got stuck at the top, so he pulled me over. We actually made it in – and it felt epic.

We were absolutely buzzing. It was just the weirdest feeling to have jumped a load of fences and then landed on the other side in the right place. Everyone there knew what we’d done so we had to dash off into the mix so we weren’t caught immediately.

To be honest, I was amazed it worked. I was worried about not getting in and being sent home with a tail between my legs. But George was ever the optimist. He just said, if that happens, we just try again. We were just really lucky that no one was looking around. It was definitely a game of chance.

Even if you do manage to sneak into Glastonbury, you do need mates on the other side to sort you out. We had a few friends who knew what we were up to and had got through legitimately, who had supplies and stuff for us when we got through.

One of the acts playing that year was Coldplay, but I didn’t want to watch them, so I went to see The Chemical Brothers instead – they were great.

Alex describes some of his time at Glasto as ‘the best days of his life’ (Picture: Matt Cardy)

Despite getting in for free, I have to admit it wasn’t the best Glastonbury I’d been to. My favourite was when I worked there one year as a security guard with my mates.

If you looked at us, you’d think we were The Inbetweeners, so it was a bit of a laugh. Our post as security was working under the towers by the Pyramid Stage – we basically had to sit there all day to stop people climbing up them, so we had front-row seats for every single act. And we could stand up on these concrete blocks, so we were six feet in front of the rest of the crowd. I swear to God, it was one of the best days of my life – we could see this sea of people jumping up and dancing and it was just incredible.

Would I try and sneak in free again? Well, now I’m older, I actually have the money to buy tickets legitimately. Plus, it was incredibly stressful, so I’d rather have the ease of just buying a ticket.

However, I must admit that deep down I absolutely would do it again, if there were some amazing headliners. If Beyonce performed at Glastonbury again, I’d be over that fence like a shot.

Rachel Williams, 26, is a marketing strategist. She has worked Glastonbury Festival as a steward.

Rachel has been a steward for Glasto for three years (Picture: Supplied)

I started working at Glastonbury in 2017. I got into working as a steward thanks to my best friend Hannah, who I met at Salford University. She’s from Bridgewater in Somerset, and we get to volunteer every year to raise money for her dad, who is involved in the local swimming club.

Working as a steward effectively means we have to be friendly, helpful faces around the festival. We’re given these lovely bright pink high-vis jackets and we have to point people in the right direction, like show them where the toilets are or point them where certain parts of the festival are. We’re also taught what to do if there’s an emergency – from people collapsing, to even lightning strikes: some of us are given walkie talkies so we can call over security or medics.

You need to be trained to be a steward, with online sessions if you’re from outside Somerset – but if you live close to the site, you’re expected to be trained in person. We have one or two seminars and then we have separate health and safety training, and every eventuality is catered for. We’re taught the secret hand signals to summon medics – pretty much every eventuality is covered. It’s hard work – it’s certainly not meant to be a doss job. 

Hannah (left) and Rachel (right) had day shifts in 2019 (Picture: Supplied)

During my first Glastonbury as a steward, I was given a night shift on South East Corner, the party sector of the festival where everyone goes to dance after the main stages close. It’s basically one big party – and we were working it from 10pm to 6am. I had absolutely no idea what to expect and I was quite nervous to have to look after so many people. We’d had our training and I was with my friend, but it did seem like a lot of responsibility!

While it did seem a bit surreal to be sober in a field of around 200,000 drunk people, it wasn’t too bad in the end, so I know what I have to prepare for this time round. We get to enjoy the music and we just keep an eye on things so people are okay. Glastonbury’s mantra is Love the Farm, Leave No Trace, so we have to scold people for littering and stop people (mainly men) peeing on the grass. Thankfully, we haven’t had to deal with anything too crazy.

Night shifts are brutal, but there can be upsides that make the gig worth it. We finish at 6am, and then we get a quiet morning’s sleep as everyone else has long gone to bed. We then rise at about 1pm and then we can enjoy the festival until the shift starts, so we get to see all the main headliners. It can be incredibly tiring though and we can’t enjoy the festival to its fullest extent. You do have to take the role seriously, and you can’t get too drunk. I’d like to properly experience the festival as a punter just once.

But being a steward isn’t all sunnies and selfies, as Rachel explains (Picture: Supplied)

Signing up to do stewarding is a gamble because you don’t know what shifts you’re going to get. In 2019, we had to steward during the day and that was easier. We’re not allowed to swap shifts, and if you don’t show up to work, you’re effectively struck off and you’re charged the same price of your ticket. It can sometimes mean you have to miss some of the best performances: I didn’t get to see Kylie Minogue in 2019 as we weren’t designated to steward in that area, so that was disappointing. But I’ve met so many brilliant people that I don’t feel like I’ve missed out.

As we’re stewarding, we have to get to the festival a day early – we’re on-site on Tuesday, rather than Wednesday, and we finish late on a Monday. There’s something magical about sitting on Glastonbury Hill by the sign and watching all these excited festivalgoers filling in. There’s nothing quite like it – it’s almost romantic when you think about it.

I have some of the best days of my life working Glastonbury. I love The Killers and so when they headlined, and I didn’t know whether I’d get to see them. I was desperate to see Brandon Flowers, I adore him so much. When my shifts meant I could see them on the Pyramid Stage, that was a massive bucket list moment ticked for me.

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