Glastonbury face technical issues locking fans out of live stream

Music lovers have been missing live concerts after a year under lockdown and event after event being cancelled.

The legendary 5 day UK festival, Glastonbury returned this year following covid regulations through our computer screens with a five-hour live stream on the 22nd of May. 

The festival was available to watch for £20 with all proceeds made from ticket sales going to UK charity Oxfam, Greenpeace, Wateraid as well as additionally helping bring back the festival hoped for in 2022. 

The very first Glastonbury music festival was hosted on the 19th of September 1970 by farmer Michael Eavis at Worthy Farm and has ever since been a hit.

For the first time ever, Worthy Farm was empty of the crowds of screaming fans and the incredible atmosphere. While the live stream offering ticket holders the opportunity to watch their favourite artists in the comfort of their own homes seemed like a plausible idea. In an unfortunate turn of events, viewers were locked out of the live stream and many fans headed to Twitter to air their frustrations and find out what the problem was.

Ticket holders were given a code that should have allowed them to access the festival. The technical issues caused viewers to be locked out of the live stream and denied access. 

While they are not exactly sure what went wrong, organiser Emily Eavis apologised and did her best to rectify the issue. I can’t quite imagine the panic felt by Glastonbury organisers. Some of us may have experienced the panic of organising a virtual zoom event and forgetting to give everyone access, now imagine this with thousands of eagerly waiting slightly drunk paying die-hard Glastonbury fans… yeah the pressure was on. 

It seemed that the majority of people were locked out and the lucky few able to access the stream were blissfully unaware of the disaster that had occurred. While some continued to try logging in others switched to this year’s competition for the festivals, Eurovision.

@glastonbury #liveatworthyfarm Getting ready for the live stream tonight!! Party Party Party!! pic.twitter.com/2XuqBD5MOl

— Jamie Anderson (@JamieAn51548151) May 22, 2021

Popular British band Coldplay debuted their latest song ‘Human Heart’ at the festival and other talented artists such as Jorga Smith, Haim and Michael Kiwanuka. Finding a solution to the problem viewers could rewind in order to catch every moment of the special performances, this wasn’t good enough for some who said it defeated the point of a live stream event … which is pretty fair enough. 

Drift Live Streaming hosts for the festival released a public statement to apologise to the thousands of ticket holders for the technical difficulties.

Disappointment and outrage arose the longer the live stream went on and ticket holders attempted to log in time and time again, their will to keep the positive vibes dwindled. The stages were masterpieces inviting viewers into the space the musicians played in virtually. It was a real shame technical issues may have overshadowed this but the hosts are hoping people can enjoy watch back in the coming days.