GLASTONBURY organisers have said it was “unacceptable” that technical issues led to two-hour delays accessing the festival’s livestreamed Live At Worthy Farm event.
Event producer and promoter Driift Live said it had the “heaviest of hearts” and was “mortified” that people were “locked out” of the feed and unable to use their access codes.
A statement said: “For last night’s failings, we would like to apologise to Glastonbury Festival, to all the amazing artists who gave their time to perform, and to all the backstage crew and partners who worked so hard with us over many months to make this historic show a reality.
“Most importantly, we apologise unreservedly to all of you who had your plans upset. We would also like to make clear that Driift is making no financial gain from this livestream event, and we hoped it would generate much needed revenue for the festival and its charity partners.”
Coldplay, Haim and Kano were among the acts on the bill for the pre-recorded show, which had been due to start at 7pm on Saturday.
Technical issues meant many people were not able to access the stream until close to 9pm after ticketholders reported on social media they were unable to access the event due to an “invalid codes” error message. Driift stressed it is “not a tech business or a media platform”, and was relying on a third-party company for “certain aspects” of broadcasting the stream.
The statement added: “We are assured that there will be no problems with [yesterday’s] two ‘encore’ streams which will continue as planned at 2pm and 7pm.
“Those ticket purchasers adversely impacted last night have already been emailed with instructions of how to access these streams – or how to process a refund.
“Meanwhile, those who purchased tickets for the ‘encore’ streams specifically should proceed and log-in as normal.”
It continued: “We still believe that this is a very special film, and it is beyond frustrating that so many of you could not enjoy it as we intended.”
Tickets to access the stream cost £20. After the delay, Driift said it was providing a free link.
Glastonbury Festival organiser Emily Eavis also apologised for the technical issues.
She tweeted: “I am so sorry about the problems with the stream tonight ... I really hope you can enjoy the rest of it tonight.”
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