Fans wanting to attend next year's Glastonbury Festival will be able to reserve their tickets six months earlier than normal for a £50 deposit.

From October, 100,000 tickets will be made available.

Organiser Michael Eavis said they were changing the ticketing system because of the confusion surrounding the sale of this year's tickets.

They will be put on sale on 5 October ahead of other music festivals in the hope this will avoid 2008's slow sales.

Mr Eavis said he expected there to be a high demand for next year's festival.

"Everybody wants to come - everywhere I go people say 'oh we should've been there and we're so fed up about it' because it was so good," he said.

"There was so much stuff going on - Trash City, Shangri-La, The Park - there's all these other things that are going on as well as the main stages and everywhere I go people are kicking themselves because they didn't go, so there really will be a big demand."

He said the ticket price will increase to cover costs, which this year included an unbudgeted £160,000 on fuel.

"We actually did it [the 2008 festival] cheap - we couldn't cover the costs at that price. It wasn't a loss but it wasn't as good as it should've been," he said.

Mr Eavis said despite the stresses associated with organising the festival, he still loved organising it.

"I've never enjoyed it so much although I've had a lot of worries this year with the tickets not selling - I lost half a stone in weight at one point.

"I was so scared but it came through. So when you get so scared like that and then when it comes right in the end it's fantastic.

"It's completely different to how we're talking six months ago when we were saying 'oh no is this the end? It's on its way out because we didn't sell out straight away...' so we had all those stories about the demise of the festival and they were completely wrong. We completely changed it around."

Although Jay-Z's controversial headline act proved to be a success, Mr Eavis said he does not have plans to book a similar act for next year.

"We'll probably be going for the more traditional headliner next year because there are more of them around and after this year everyone wants to come onboard because it was such a good do.

"The thing is people are coming back."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7522221.stm

More details have been announced on the festival's website.

''Glastonbury Festival will launch an early booking scheme for the 2009 event this October. For the first time in the Festival’s history, a number of tickets for next year’s event will be available from October 5th 2008 – either to BUY outright, or to RESERVE with a simple £50 deposit.

Festival-goers, who have registered, will be able to reserve up to four tickets for the 2009 Festival – taking place on 26th, 27th and 28th June 2009 – by placing a £50 deposit on each ticket from 5th October. The balance on the ticket price will be payable at any time up until the final deadline of March 22nd.  Alternatively, from 5th October, registered festival-goers will be able to buy outright up to four tickets for next year’s event.

The final number of early tickets available – plus the confirmed weekend ticket price for Glastonbury 2009, together with full details of the scheme – will be announced on September 1st.  At that time we will also provide information about how to purchase all supplementary tickets for the Festival - child tickets, car parking tickets, caravan and campervan tickets, coach tickets, and tipi tickets.  The remaining tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2009 will be available to buy as normal in April 2009. 

Says organiser Michael Eavis: “We have come up with a scheme that will allow people a much longer period to plan and pay for their tickets, while still continuing the battle against ticket touting. I’m very pleased to announce that by paying as little as £50 up front this year, our registered customers from all over the world will be able to guarantee a ticket for next year’s event.  At the same time, the very successful registration scheme will ensure that tickets will only go to those named individuals who have reserved them in advance.”

Many festival goers have already registered their names for the 2009 and 2010, events and will already have their all important registration number.   Newcomers will be able to register for the first time from September 1st 2008. Registration will then remain open until 4th October 2008. After the first day of sales, registration will REOPEN from 6th October to March 22nd, allowing everyone the chance to register and buy a ticket.

Payment methods will remain the same for the 2009 Festival as they were for 2008. The £50 deposit will be payable by debit card ONLY for UK festival-goers, while payment by credit card will be acceptable from those travelling from outside the UK.

Full details of the booking scheme will be posted on 1st September on this website - www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk ''

I'm warming to the idea though I still have concerns that our monies will be sitting in GFL's bank accounts making lots of lovely interest for them when it should be doing that for me.

Still, 50 quid is a reasonable amount to reserve a ticket.

Evening boys and girls :o)

Am i being totally dim or are we automatically registered for 2009 because we attended this year??? If so, will they contact you?? Arghhhhhhh!

KM I am very jealous because you are at Reading and I'm not plus the weather is gorge and it was sh*tE at V!

Big loves, x

If you pre-registered this year then you won't need to for next year, but you will need to be aware that you'll have to still have your details from this year as GFL won't contact you.

Full details are out September 1st.

lilacjelly wrote: KM I am very jealous because you are at Reading and I'm not plus the weather is gorge and it was sh*tE at V! Big loves, x

Only went for the day yesterday and had HUGE fun watching QotSA & Rage Against The Machine. I'm wishing I went for the weekend now, though apparently parts of the campsite are f**ked after the constant rain.

had a email today with a reminder of my registration number which confirms that i am pre-registered.  i seem to remember that it was optional whether to register for 1 yr or all 3.

suggest that if you don't get an email in the next few days you will probably have to re-register.

Righty ho, tomorrow we get full details regarding tickets, or for those unwilling to wait the BBC provides us with full details.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7584000/7584812.stm