Organisers of the Glastonbury Festival are considering issuing ID cards rather than tickets in order to foil ticket touts.
As previously reported, such is the demand for tickets to the flagship music festival, which last year sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on sale, that there has been considerable business for touts over the years, selling either forged tickets, or marked-up tickets they have bought under different names.
Organisers of the festival, who do not want tickets (even if they are official tickets) to be sold at hiked up prices by middle-men, have introduced various measures to stop touts, including last year asking festival-goers to present ID when showing their named tickets at entry gates. However some touts merely supplied fake ID with the tickets they sold.
The latest scheme would see festival-goers carry an ID card which would include a photo and a computer chip carrying personal information.
The festival's Emily Eavis told reporters yesterday: "Rather than a ticket, it will be like an entrance card, and it really is to try to limit forgeries and touting. As long as it's approached in the right way, it might really work, it might really change the system".
However, aware the measure might be seen by some Glastonbury regulars as being too oppressive, organisers are inviting music fans to give their opinions on the ID card proposals via the Radio 1 website.