46,932 supporters helped the Earthquake appeal raise an incredible £1,044,190 in just 21 days
Glastonbury Festival in collaboration with Oxfam has managed to raise more than £1 million for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC)’s appeal to help communities impacted by the Turkey and Syria earthquakes.
The appeal, which came in the form of a raffle, gave participants the opportunity to win one of 10 pairs of tickets donated by the Festival to its sold-out 2023 event, each including a once-in-a-lifetime experience – such as the chance to watch a band from the side of the legendary Pyramid Stage or introduce an act on The Park Stage.
The appeal managed to raise more than £320,000 just 12 hours after launching on the 15th of February, rapidly increasing to £550,000 only 24 hours later and finally smashing its updated target of £1 million on Monday evening, the 6th of March.
Upon reaching the incredible £1 million milestone set on the Crowdfunder website, Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis said: “I’m completely knocked out to reach £1 million in our Turkey/Syria DEC raffle. Thank you to every single person who has donated and played a part for such a desperately important cause. As ever, the support of festival goers is so inspiring and makes it all worthwhile.”
The prize draw concluded at noon on the 8th of March raising a sum total of £1,044,130 from 46,390 supporters, with the draw set to take place on the 15th of March and winners notified by email and/or first-class post within 5 days of the draw date.
Glastonbury Festival said: “We’d like to send a huge thanks to the 46,932 supporters who helped the prize draw raise an incredible £1,044,190 in 21 days. We’re absolutely blown away by that total. Your donations will help the continued effort to support people living in the areas most affected by the earthquake by providing access to food, restoring water systems, and supporting people’s livelihoods through financial support. In just a week’s time the 10 winners of once-in-lifetime Glastonbury tickets / experiences will be selected so please keep an eye on your inbox.”
Thank You to everyone who has entered our prize draw with @glastonbury to win tickets and experiences raising £1,044,130 from 46,390 supporters! 🙌
Proceeds go to our Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal which could supply vital clean water, food, shelter and other urgent help. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/lZMUUx0OKO
— Oxfam (@oxfamgb) March 9, 2023
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN TÜRKIYE (TURKEY) AND SYRIA
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake has devastated regions of northern Syria, southern Türkiye and surrounding areas. There’s been huge loss of life, thousands of people injured, and many more still buried in the debris. Survivors are on the streets in freezing conditions. With their homes in rubble, people are struggling to find safe shelter, water, and food.
The earthquake comes at a time when Syria has the highest number of people in humanitarian need since the violent conflict began 12 years ago. In Türkiye, the regions worst affected by the earthquake were those with large refugee communities already living in tough conditions. For thousands of people, a fragile situation has been made even worse.
Meryem Aslan, Oxfam spokesperson in Ankara said: “It is a double tragedy for survivors having to cope too with the cold and who will be unable to sleep outside. It is horrifying to contemplate how people will even be able to cope, given that some areas are even now in snow.”
Emily Eavis added: “With the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria affecting so many people, we wanted to offer a draw of unique Glastonbury 2023 prizes to raise what we can to help with the relief efforts”.
OTHER GLASTONBURY NEWS
Prior to the Oxfam raffle mentioned above, the Festival also helped raise over £116,000 in aid of the Trussell Trust in a partnership auction to help support people facing hardship across the UK.
The money was put up in a series of 10 eBay auctions run by the food bank charity to raise funds for their network of over 1,300 food banks scattered across the country.
In this instance, similar to the Oxfam appeal, auctions offered 10 pairs of tickets which included once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for fans at the Festival.
The total from all ten Trussell Trust auctions amounted to £116,738 – with the “cheapest” pair of tickets selling for £10,200, which included the chance to watch a set from the Other Stage viewing platform.
Glastonbury 2023 takes place from Wednesday 21st to Sunday 25th of June 2023 at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset.
Although tickets for the 2023 event sold out late last year [2022], there will be resales of any unpaid and/or cancelled tickets that will take place later in the Spring (around April time).
As part of Glastonbury’s ongoing efforts against ticket touting, anyone who would like to attend this year’s Festival will need to have registered in advance.
As in previous years, registration remains free of charge and only takes a few minutes at glastonburyregistration.co.uk.
Those who have already registered in the past can also check their existing registration here.
In addition to the upcoming ticket resales, some other opportunities for getting to Glastonbury include working at the Festival, volunteering and entering competitions – once these options make themselves available.
To learn more about registration, the sale process and how you can maximise your chances of getting Glastonbury 2023 tickets, click here.
DON’T BE FOOLED
Glastonbury Festival would very much like fans to be aware that there are people out there who will try and sell fake Glastonbury tickets to unsuspecting, willing and innocent potential purchasers.
Although Glasto-veterans who have been going to the Festival for quite some time may recognise these scams for what they are, newcomers might not.
Therefore, please remember that tickets are only sold on one site, which is: glastonbury.seetickets.com.