04 March 2023 , 06:18
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The organisers of Glastonbury have defended the rise in cost of tickets - saying they should have hiked prices by double the amount they did.
Festival goers are forking out extra for tickets to the 2023 event - with prices rising by £55 up to £340, with the event taking place at Worthy Farm from June 21 to 25.
But before fans grumble about the price of tickets increasing during a cost of living crisis, they may find organisers think they should be grateful they aren’t being charged £100 more compared to last year instead.
Festival organiser Emily Eavis, 43 - who runs Glastonbury along with her 87-year-old father, Michael - has defended the price increase.
Emily Eavis has defended the rapid increase in Glastonbury ticket prices (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)She told The Sun: “We put it up by the minimum that we could.
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“In order to do the exact same show as last time, we would have had to put £100 on the ticket.
“That’s the amount that costs have gone up.”
Meanwhile, there has been a near deafening backlash against Glastonbury ahead of the 2023 event after the initial line-up was unveiled on Friday.
Music fans were disheartened to find a list of performers that was stacked disproportionately towards white, male performers - sparking complaints online.
Arctic Monkeys and Guns N Roses were unveiled as the other headliners of the weekend - alongside the already announced Sir Elton John.
Sir Elton John is one of the Glastonbury 2023 headliners (Getty Images)Some music fans have branded the line-up "awful" in terms of diversity after it was noted 53% of performers confirmed so far are male and just 43% of acts are non-white.
Independent's Culture & Lifestyle News Editor Roisin O'Connor said: "Situations like this year's Glastonbury lineup are a direct symptom of industry failures to support female artists from the ground up. Getting them on the smaller stages, on radio, at live venues."
And fans online didn’t take kindly to the line-up either, with one expressing disappointment by tweeting: “Stormzy wasn't at big festival headliner status when he did Glastonbury and look what he did with the platform. Seems unusually backwards to not allow that same opportunity to literally any women."
Another commented: "Awful lack of diversity in the headliners. The undercard is excellent though."
And a futher commenter said: "@glastonbury do better!!! All male headliners? You can’t even blame lack of talent, there is a overwhelming WEALTH of amazing women to choose from."
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Guns N' Roses will also headline the event (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
The line-up, which includes Arctic Monkeys, has sparked a backlash (Simone Joyner/Getty Images)Defending the line-up to The Guardian, Emily pleaded: "We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board."
She continued to say Glastonbury is "entirely focused on balancing [our] bill" in terms of gender but "every aspect of diversity".