First-Timer’s Guide to Glastonbury Festival

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

This guide has everything you need to make the most of your first Glastonbury experience!

Stepping into the world of Glastonbury for the first time can be both exciting and overwhelming. From packing essentials to navigating the festival, I’ve got you covered with all the tips and tricks you need.

Getting tickets for Glastonbury

To get tickets for your first Glastonbury Festival, you need to register on the official Glastonbury website before the ticket sale begins.

Registration involves providing your details and a photo, which helps prevent ticket resale.

You can gegister for tickets here. Registration for Glastonbury tickets is typically available for a limited time. Be sure to check the registration period carefully, as it’s easy to miss the window!

Tickets are sold exclusively through See Tickets, with the main sale typically divided into two days: one for coach packages and another for general admission. The ticket website is here.

The coach package sale usually happens first, followed by the general admission sale a few days later. You need to be prepared and act quickly, as tickets sell out within minutes. Additionally, there is a resale of any unpaid or cancelled tickets in April.

When the ticket sale starts, you’ll find yourself in a virtual queue on the See Tickets website. Everyone who logs in before the sale begins is randomly assigned a spot in the queue, so it’s a bit of a lottery. Always make sure to be online a few minutes early to increase your chances of getting a good place. Once you’re in the queue, you’ll see a progress bar that shows how close you are to reaching the booking page.

Getting tickets for Glastonbury Festival is quite an experience in itself, it can be stressful waiting in the que! I was shaking when we finally got through as couldn’t believe it.

Cost of the Tickets

Glastonbury tickets can be expensive and if its your first time you will be wondering if its worth the money. Yes, it is an experience!!

The cost of general admission full weekend tickets (valid from Wednesday 25th June to Sunday 29th June) for Glastonbury 2025 cost £378.50 (including a £5 booking fee per ticket) plus postage and packing at £10.25 per order (£2.75 per order for coach tickets).

When getting tickets, you will need to pay a deposit of £75 and the remaining balance is usually paid off in April. Gives you time to save for the ticket cost!

How to get to Glastonbury?

Most people will have coach tickets included in their festival ticket price, which is a great option if you’re lucky enough to get tickets on this day. The downside is that you won’t be able to choose your coach pick-up time. Instead, you’ll be allocated a bus time closer to the festival.

The other options for getting to Glastonbury are:

Driving:

We drove to Glastonbury from Manchester, which took around 3–4 hours. We decided to drive down on the Tuesday evening and stay in an Airbnb nearby. This worked really well for us as it meant we could do the long drive the day before, stay somewhere close to Glastonbury and get a good night’s sleep before five nights of camping!

We stayed in this air bnb.

It was around a 30-minute drive from where we were staying to the festival gates. We set off at around 6am to join the queue ahead of the gates opening at 8am, but there was already traffic and a queue to get into the car park by the time we arrived.

As you can see from the photo below, the queue was pretty intense! Carrying all your stuff while waiting to get in was hard work, especially as it was around 28°C. Not exactly what you want on the first day of a camping festival!

I was definitely grateful that we had driven, though. It meant that when we left on the Monday after the festival, we could pack up and leave whenever we wanted rather than having to wait for a coach.

Parking at Glastonbury

If you’re planning on driving, you’ll need to pay for parking when you pay your final ticket balance. Parking costs £50, but we drove down as a group of four, so it worked out at just £12.50 each.

When your tickets arrive, you’ll also receive a parking sticker to display on your car. As you can see in the photo below, this needs to be displayed on your car when you arrive.

You can also pay for parking when you arrive, but I believe this needs to be paid in cash, so it’s worth keeping this in mind.

National Express Bus

Our friends took the National Express bus, which was around £100 return if booked in advance. The buses were quite reliable on the way there, but they were slightly delayed on the way back.

Book your tickets here

What to Pack for Glastonbury?

If it’s your first time going to Glastonbury, I can imagine you’re already feeling a little overwhelmed with what to pack, as I felt exactly the same! I’ve put together the ultimate Glastonbury packing list to hopefully make things a little easier. You definitely won’t need everything on the list, but I’ve tried to include everything you might need, so you can pick and choose what works for you.

If you’re going as part of a big group, try and split some of the things between you. This will save you packing space and, most importantly, remember that you’ll have to carry everything into the festival!

Click here to view my post on what to pack.

It does get so cold on the evenings, be prepared and pack layers.

Some extra packing tips

Keep your phone charged: Vodafone has a free phone charging tent where you can charge your phone, and you can also rent battery packs to keep you going throughout the festival.

Bring your own drinks: This will save you a fortune, especially if you’re going for five days!

Forgotten something? Don’t worry! There are shops around some of the campsites and the festival where you can pick up essentials. There’s also a huge pop-up Co-op, which is really handy for grabbing snacks, drinks, toiletries, ice and anything else you might have forgotten. So, you don’t need to panic if you leave something at home!

Where to camp?

Bushy Ground was perfect for us as it was one of the quieter campsites. Some of the campsites closer to the South East Corner looked like the tents were practically on top of each other, whereas we had plenty of space around us at Bushy Ground.

We arrived early on the Wednesday at around 7am, which worked really well for us. We managed to get a good spot for our group of 10 before our friends arrived on the bus later that afternoon. Even when they arrived, there was still plenty of space in Bushy Ground, so I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for somewhere a little quieter.

If you’re driving to Glastonbury, Bushy Ground is also close to Pedestrian Gate D, which made getting to our campsite from the car park fairly straightforward.

Glastonbury is huge, as you can see from the site map below, so choosing where to camp can make a big difference to your experience!

First Timer Tips

Use What3Words

The What3Words app was honestly so useful for finding our tent after we’d had a few drinks at the festival! I’d also recommend using it when you park your car (If you drive to Glastonbury). We saved the location of our car on What3Words and it made finding it so much easier when we left at 5am on the Monday morning to beat the traffic.

Download the Glastonbury app

Make sure you download the Glastonbury app before you go. You can see all the artists performing, create your own personalised schedule and keep track of who you want to see.

It also has a live map showing the different stages, areas and traders, as well as updates and announcements throughout the festival. We found it really useful for planning our days. 

Plan who you want to see

The Glastonbury site is huge! Walking from one side of the site to the other can take up to an hour, so bear this in mind when planning your day.

If you want to see two artists performing back-to-back on opposite sides of the site, it can be tricky, especially if they’re popular acts and the site is really busy. You might need to leave one set early or miss the start of the next one. This actually happened to us twice, and we couldn’t get into the Sugababes set. I was absolutely gutted haha!

If there’s someone you really want to see, I’d recommend getting there early, especially for the bigger acts. The Glastonbury App is great for planning your schedule and working out where everything is.

Consider getting a Vodafone SIM

I’d highly recommend looking into a Vodafone SIM or eSIM if you’re not already with Vodafone. I’m with EE and barely had any signal at times, which made it really difficult to contact friends or find each other when we weren’t together.

You can also buy SIMs at the festival, and Vodafone has charging tents where you can charge your phone. This is definitely something I wish I’d known before going

Camp Near Compost Toilets

As you can imagine, some of the toilets at Glastonbury aren’t exactly the best! The compost toilets are so much better than the long drops, which you can smell from a mile away. I definitely wouldn’t recommend camping right next to the long-drop toilets!

They also have women’s urinals, which are a GAME CHANGER for the girls. No queuing for the women’s toilets and, in my opinion, they were much better than I expected.

If you’re choosing where to camp, I’d definitely look out for the compost toilets nearby.

Bring a trolley for bringing your stuff in

We spent ages debating whether to buy a festival trolley before Glastonbury, and honestly, it was one of the best things we bought.

It wasn’t cheap, but I would have happily paid double for it after seeing how many people’s trolleys broke while carrying their stuff in. It took us around an hour and a half to get into the festival and it was 28°C, so the last thing you want is your trolley breaking halfway there!

This is the trolley we bought from Amazon. It held up really well for us and was definitely worth the money.

Bring your own alcohol and snacks

Bring your own alcohol and snacks if you can. You can take your own alcohol into the festival, so we saved a fortune by bringing our own rather than buying drinks all day.

There are shops and the Co-op on site if you do run out of things, but bringing your own will definitely help keep the costs down.

Join the Glastonbury Tips Facebook group

If you’re going for the first time, I’d also recommend joining the Glastonbury Tips Facebook group. There’s loads of useful advice from people who have been before, and it’s a good place to ask questions if there’s anything you’re unsure about.

TOP TIP – Look out for the secret sets
If you want to find out about secret sets while you’re at the festival, keep an eye on Secretglasto on X/Twitter. They’re great for sharing updates about surprise performances and secret sets.

What to do at Glastonbury?

Glastonbury isn’t just about the music and the acts – there is so much more to see and do around the festival!

The line up acts & watching the headliners

The line-up for Glastonbury is usually released in March, so you can start getting excited about who is playing and plan in advance who you want to see. The app is perfect for this, and you’ll also find loads of other acts you might not have heard of or weren’t expecting!

Seeing the headliners is such a big part of the Glastonbury experience. If you’ve watched Glastonbury on the TV before, you’ll know how amazing the atmosphere looks, so being there in person and experiencing it for yourself is pretty special. Even if they’re not your favourite artist, I’d definitely recommend watching at least one of the main headliners!

The secret acts

Glastonbury is also famous for its secret acts. At Glastonbury in 2024, some of the surprise acts included Kasabian and Fred Again. These surprise performances add another level of excitement, so keep an eye out for any secret set announcements as I was gutted to miss these!

Go to South East Corner (the Naughty Corner)

The South East Corner is nicknamed the Naughty Corner, as this is where you’ll find all the late-night parties after the main headliners have finished. There are usually lots of popular DJs playing here.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the stages are open until 3am, while from Friday to Sunday, some of the stages are open until 6am. It’s so different from the rest of the festival and there’s A LOT  going on. I’d definitely recommend heading down there at least once, even if you’re not usually someone who stays out until the early hours!

Make sure you explore!

There is so much more to Glastonbury than just the line-up. There is honestly so much going on that it can feel a little overwhelming!

You can do everything from salsa classes, comedy and craft workshops to visiting Glastonbury-on-Sea, Carhenge, the Underground Piano Bar and the Hippie Village. There’s even the famous Disco Loo and, when we were there, an act playing school assembly bangers! This was one of my favourite things – it was such a throwback and so funny!

Be sure to explore the festival and discover as much as you can. You can find most of the workshops, classes and different areas on the Glastonbury app.

Watch the sunset at the Glastonbury sign

On the Wednesday, lots of people head to the Glastonbury sign to watch the sunset. It does get busy, but it’s a must!

My top tip would be to use the Wednesday and Thursday to explore the site, as these days are more quieter music wise.

Food and drink at Glastonbury: How much does it cost?

As mentioned earlier, bringing your own alcohol is a great way to save money, and you can take it around the festival with you.

There are water taps all around the festival, so make sure you bring a reusable bottle and keep it topped up throughout the day.

There are loads of food stalls at Glastonbury, with pretty much every type of food you can think of! Most meals are around £8–£15, but keep an eye out for the £6 options. These are usually smaller portions, but they’re a great cheaper option if you’re trying to keep your spending down.

Soft drinks, coffee and water were around £3–£6 when we went in 2024, depending on what you got.

I spent less than £200 for the whole five days, including food and some alcoholic drinks, which I was actually really happy with! There are loads of shops and things to buy around the festival, but I managed to resist the temptation.

The Co-op is also really handy, especially for grabbing a meal deal for lunch or picking up snacks and drinks.

If you have any questions about Glastonbury or anything I’ve mentioned in this post, feel free to leave a comment! I’m more than happy to help where I can.

My thoughts on Glastonbury

Glastonbury is an incredible experience, and I’m so glad we went. It was so much fun spending five days with our friends, seeing some amazing acts and experiencing one of the most famous festivals in the world!

However, I did find it more challenging than I expected, especially as I’m not a huge festival person. I knew it would be busy, but honestly, nothing prepared me for just how busy it was! Getting to some of the more popular acts was difficult because there were so many people trying to get there at the same time. I also struggled with the toilets and how dusty everything gets – the dust really does get everywhere!

If I was lucky enough to get tickets again, I’d definitely spend more time exploring everything Glastonbury has to offer rather than trying to see so many acts. I’d also only pick a handful of artists to see, so you’re not constantly rushing from one side of the site to the other.

I also came across Holt Farm after the festival, which looks like a great option if you want a more comfortable camping experience, with hot showers, ice baths, saunas and clean toilets. You can find out more here.

Overall, I’m really glad I went and got to experience Glastonbury for myself. It really is such a unique place, and there’s so much more to it than just the music

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about Glastonbury!