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Glastonbury has taken the unprecedented step of selling thousands fewer tickets for its 2025 event following dangerous overcrowding last year. Festival chief Emily Eavis confirmed the capacity reduction just weeks before Olivia Rodrigo, The 1975 and Neil Young headline the iconic event. The move addresses 2024’s critical incidents, where crowd crushes forced performances to halt and areas to close. “We’ve sold a few thousand fewer tickets to see how that affects site dynamics,” Eavis stated on the Sidetracked podcast.

Shangri-La’s radical green reinvention

In its most dramatic transformation, the festival’s legendary nightlife zone Shangri-La will become a tree filled sanctuary, abandoning its industrial aesthetic entirely. “It’s completely the opposite of anything we’ve done,” Eavis revealed. Simultaneously, newly acquired land has created Dragon’s Tail, a public hilltop area overlooking the southeast corner. The dual strategy is to disperse crowds after last year’s chaos, when fans missed sets like Sugababes and Charli XCX due to unsafe congestion.

Mystery act Patchwork caps major line-up changes

A secret Pyramid Stage booking named “Patchwork”, which required a year of complex logistics, fuels intense speculation alongside major acts. The line-up also features Rod Stewart’s coveted legends slot, Irish rap trio Kneecap and breakout star Raye. Demand remains high despite reduced capacity: November’s first ticket batch sold out in 30 minutes, with coach packages disappearing even faster. “There were years we couldn’t give tickets away,” Eavis reflected, contrasting the current frenzy with past struggles.

Organisers now leverage crowd data from the festival app’s schedule planner, which accurately predicted 2024 pinch points. Post-pandemic movement patterns show attendees move more in a herd, prompting new traffic management including 10 alternative routes across the sprawling site.

The festival runs from 25 to 30 June with additional measures like expanded space at the Other Stage, where Charli XCX’s Saturday headline set is expected to test the new systems. While operating below its capacity of 210,000, Glastonbury maintains its non-corporate ethos despite £10 million (₹1,025,000,000) pandemic losses. “The whole thing is based on goodwill,” Eavis emphasised, rejecting commercial takeovers. Final preparations include £1 million (₹102,500,000) wet weather contingencies, ensuring the show proceeds rain or shine.