The organiser of Greenbelt has recognised the impact of the cost of living crisis on its attendees and has subsequently decided to change its ticket pricing structure.

“Every single festival is wrestling with their budgets at the moment, just like we all are at home,” says Paul Northup, creative director. “One answer is simply to pass the cost on and whack up 2023 ticket prices.

“The problem we have with that is that it doesn’t feel very Greenbelt. We’ve spent nearly 50 years doing everything we could to be a festival that everyone and anyone could afford to come to, and we don’t want to stop now.”

Greenbelt’s solution is in keeping with the festival’s inclusive ethos. For 2023, the festival is sweeping away the usual tiered pricing that most festivals use during the year to drive sales, which includes discounted “early bird” tickets and then progressively more expensive tickets as the festival approaches.

Instead, Greenbelt is replacing all of that with three simple price-points for adult tickets. Prices will remain the same across the year, and Greenbelters will be completely free to decide which option best suits their circumstances: Supported (£150), Standard (£190) and Supporter (£230).

By buying tickets in September, festivalgoers can spread the total cost interest-free over 11 months up to July 2023 (or 10 months if they buy in October, and so on). The adult ticket prices are on offer alongside cheaper tickets for under-18s (£70) and concessions (£100), all of which can also be paid for in instalments over the year, interest-free.

“Our Supported adult tickets are subsidised by those festivalgoers who are prepared to spend a little more to make sure we can still be an accessible, affordable festival for everyone,” explains Paul Northup. “Our Standard price is, realistically, what we need people to pay to make the festival that we’re all used to.”

Northup continued: “The Supporter price is a premium price that enables those Greenbelters who are able to (and want to) offer their generous support to pay it forward. That means we can offer the Supported price to those who need it.”

Greenbelt’s small team say they’ve been “blown away” by the response from festivalgoers so far since tickets went on sale at the start of September.

“This new ticketing structure doesn’t make the rising costs go away,” commented Northup. “But rather than put ourselves beyond the reach of many in 2023, we’re choosing to be honest and transparent with our community about the costs and realities. It’s early days but the response so far has been amazing. The generosity of our community never fails to astonish us.”

Image: Greenbelt/Jacob Lowe