Glastonbury glampers told they have no tickets after firm goes bust

Glastonbury fans who paid more than £10,000 each for glamping packages have been left out of pocket and face missing the festival after the company through which they booked their tickets entered liquidation.

In an email sent to some customers, Yurtel, which provided what it calls a luxury festival experience, said it would be unable to “fulfil its future obligations” to them after entering insolvency this month.

It said it could not provide refunds and customers would have to go through a third party to claim back money once the liquidation process had begun.

Customers also learned that the tickets into the festival that they thought they had booked as part of the packages had not been bought.

Not all affected customers received the email, with some only finding out that their summer plans had been disrupted through messageboards and social media.

The announcement comes a little over a month before the festival is due to begin. Tickets in the final resale event last month sold out in 19 minutes.

Yurtel’s packages, which started at £10,000 a head and went as high as £16,500, were advertised as including high-end yurt accommodation, alfresco dining, hot tubs, a cocktail bar and warm private showers. Customers were to have an on-site chauffeur who would take them from the camp to the main area of the festival on a golf buggy.

Glastonbury said that while it “appreciate[s] how disappointing this is” for those missing out, it had “no involvement with the operation of Yurtel” and could not reimburse customers.

“Anyone who has paid Yurtel for a package including Glastonbury 2025 tickets will need to pursue any potential recompense available from them via the liquidation process as outlined in their communication to you,” it said. “We are not able to incur the cost or responsibility of their loss or replacement.”

Glastonbury said Yurtel “had not actually bought any tickets for the 2025 festival prior to entering liquidation, and therefore no tickets were secured for their guests”.

The festival had listed the company as “one of a small number of campsites local to Worthy Farm with limited access to purchase hospitality tickets for their guests in certain circumstances”.

Yurtel, based in Corsham, Wiltshire, was founded in 2005 by Mickey Luke, who owns and runs the specialist events companies Riot and Audience. Luke declined to comment on the situation.

Yurtel’s website is still operational but the messaging feature on its contact page has been disabled and its Facebook, Instagram and X accounts have been deleted.

Glastonbury has advised Yurtel customers to email [email protected] with their and their party’s details to see if it can provide “alternative potential sources for those customers to purchase tickets and accommodation for this year’s festival”.

Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo and Loyle Carner are among the headliners at this year’s Glastonbury, which opens its gates to 210,000 revellers from 25 June.