Glastonbury fan claims to have lost 16k on luxury VIP tickets from secondary site which didn't arrive

7 July 2019, 16:30 | Updated: 7 July 2019, 16:31

Glastonbury Festival-goers gather at the Pryramid Stage. Picture: Ki Price/Getty Images

According to reports, Nathan Challis from Southampton claimed to buy VIP tickets for the Somerset festival from a ticketing firm that never turned up.

Glastonbury 2019 has finally closed its doors after offering up another amazing year, which saw Stormzy, The Killers and The Cure headline.

But one would-be festival-goer missed out on the entire experience when he claimed to have booked VIP tickets that never materialised.

As reported by the BBC, Nathan Challis - who hails from Southampton - said he bought tickets from Hello Front Row for a "luxury yurt" and tickets for the festival that aren't usually available to the public.

The 36-year-old, who is a director for a traffic management company told the outlet that he spent £16,000 towards the experience, which included a luxury yurt and promised the chance to "mingle with celebs and media and other VIPs" for a special price of £9,995 if he paid the full amount upfront.

Because he opted for a deposit, he was reportedly charged an extra £2,000 plus VAT, which brought the bill to £14,411.

According to the outlet, the company contacted Challis again in January offering him a yurt closer to the festival site for an extra £2,000.

He is said to have accepted this cost, which brought up his bill to over a whopping £16,000. But according to the outlet when Challis arrived to his campsite on Wednesday (26 June) his tickets were nowhere to be found.

The would-be-festival goer claims to have made several calls to the company on site but took the decision to go home after waiting for 24 hours and to try and get a refund instead.

Unfortunately for Challis - who has previously used the company to attend the BRIT Awards - he claims he was only offered £5,000 compensation during a phone call, which he refused.

Hello Front Row said in a statement that the customer's tickets arrived after Challis left, adding: "We are doing a full investigation into what caused the delay. All our other clients are at Glastonbury having a great time."

Asked by the BBC how they obtained tickets to the festival, they said they were "not at liberty" to discuss it.

Glastonbury Festival has always communicated that festival-goers should never buy tickets through secondary sites.

They write explicitly on their official website: "ONLY SEE TICKETS ARE AUTHORISED TO SELL TICKETS FOR GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL

"No other site or agency will be allocated tickets. All tickets for the Festival are individually personalised to the named ticket holder and are strictly non-transferable. Security checks are carried out on arrival, and only the specified ticket holder will be admitted to the Festival."

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