The organizers of Glastonbury held a free live broadcast concert on Saturday after thousands of ticket holders failed to enter the virtual concert showing them an error message due to technical issues.
Problems with technology meant that people who paid £ 20 to see the virtual gig found issues, not being able to enter.
The problems lasted for two hours, after which the promoters began broadcasting for free, which meant that anyone could enter, regardless of whether they had paid.
“I am very sorry for the inconvenience,” said festival organizer Emily Eavis.
Replacement broadcasts can only be turned back to an hour, meaning that the first parts of the show were not available anymore.
Eavis said the whole film would be made available for ticket holders to watch for a week from Sunday, adding: “I really hope you can enjoy the rest of it tonight. And again, I’m just so sorry to anyone who’s had issues.”
Ticket holders who did not have access to the show will be refunded if requested.
The show was supposed to start at 19:00 BST, with performances from Coldplay, Haim, Jorja Smith, George Ezra, Kano and Wolf Alice – but problems arose right from the start.
Glastonbury chief of staff Skunk Anansie was among those affected. “The code doesn’t work,” wrote their lead artist, Skin. “Don’t make me watch Eurovision.”
“Invalid code were my favourite band way before they were cool,” added DJ SK Shlomo.
However, some fans managed to get entry to the live stream. Festival bloggers Where’s My Tent told the BBC they’d logged in at 18:53 BST – and provided video proof that the stream was working.
“Wolf Alice were gorgeous and I cried seeing the stone circle fields,” they wrote online. “Michael Kiwunaka was good too. Some good bits in between too, amazing spoken word from Kae Tempest.”
However, their broadcast also failed at 20:25 BST, and they were unable to regain access until a free broadcast was available.
One fan said they managed to watch the first half hour, but “kicked one song on Michael Kiwanuka”.
“We can’t go back now. Shame,” they wrote on Twitter.
As complaints abounded, Driift Live, a technology company that helped organize the festival, told fans “please keep trying and you will be able to get in soon.”
Conservative MP Steve Brine described the situation as “shambles”.
“There are a lot of people who have paid their bills for this and your system is clearly not manageable,” he wrote on Twitter.
Free streaming was made available just before 21:00 BST. For many fans, however, the two-hour delay meant the end was too late, as performances were already due to run beyond midnight.
Earlier, Coldplay had billed the concert as “a very special night at Worthy Farm tonight and a home gig for us,” after headlining the Glastonbury four times previously.
All the artists have donated their money, the money raised aims to secure the future of the festival – which has been forced to cancel for two years in a row.
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