How to Find Cheap Airfare to the Glastonbury Festival

Unless you’re already within driving distance of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, you’ll need to fly to England first. And since airfare is always the biggest expense of a trip, it makes sense to hunt for the best deals on airfare to the Glastonbury Festival. After all, you still need to buy a ticket to the festival, right?

People who are traveling to the Glastonbury Festival from within Europe have a better chance of getting a spectacular price on airfare, since there are so many low-cost airlines serving England’s airports from cities all over Europe. Flying from outside of Europe offers fewer options, as the majority of visitors who fly to England from overseas come through the country’s biggest international gateway – London’s Heathrow Airport.

There are other airports you can look at however, and other money-saving tips you can use to find cheap airfare to the Glastonbury Festival. In this article, we’ll go over some of the best ways to get cheap fares to the festival. Some of these tips will be handy to you whenever you travel – wherever you’re going, and whenever you fly. But when you’re talking about traveling for a big event like the Glastonbury Festival – like tens of thousands of other people are – it’s especially important to pay attention to tips like these that help you save money.

>> There is no festival in 2012. The Glastonbury Festival opens June 26, 2013

Keep Your Travel Plans Flexible

The best tip for any traveler, regardless of where you’re going or when, is to be flexible with your travel plans. The reason for this is that there are peaks and dips during each week – and even each day – on the cost of fares, and if you’re limiting your travel research to just one particular day or a short window of time on a particular day you could be missing the times when the fares drop.

You can check lots of different dates and times manually by plugging in several days and times when you’re on an airfare booking site, but the easiest thing to do is let the website do the work for you. Most airfare booking sites have a box near where you put in your travel dates that says, “my dates are flexible” (or something like that) – check that box, and the system will tell you what the fares are like for 2-3 days on either side of your target date.

Know When It’s Cheapest to Fly

As mentioned above, there are certain times of the day and certain days of the week that tend to be cheaper to fly – but do you have to do a bunch of research to find out when those days are? Or are they top secret?

The good news is that the answer to both of those questions is no. The times when flights are cheapest aren’t set in stone, and they can vary, but Wednesday, Tuesday, and Saturday tend to be the cheapest days to fly. The earliest flights of the day are the ones that tend to be cheapest each day, followed by late-night flights and red-eye departures.

Again, these aren’t always going to be the cheapest ones, but if you’re hunting for cheap fares to the Glastonbury Festival it’s not a bad idea to start looking at those days of the week and times of day.

Check Budget Airlines

There are all kinds of budget airlines that fly in Europe, so if you’re already in Europe flying to the Glastonbury Festival you have several choices for cheap flights. Coming from outside Europe, you’ll likely have to fly through a larger hub airport before you can get onto a budget airline and a smaller airport, but it’s something to consider.

The closest airport to the Glastonbury Festival site is Bristol International Airport (BRS), which has regular service from low-cost airlines easyJet and Ryanair. If you have to fly through a bigger international airport first – such as London Heathrow or Gatwick – and you want to get closer to the festival by air, easyJet flies out of Gatwick.

Look at All Area Airports

As mentioned above, Bristol’s airport is the closest one to the Glastonbury Festival site, but it’s by no means the only airport in the country. And since England is well-covered by rail lines, if you find a better deal into a different airport you can always catch a train to the Castle Cary station (which is the best train station to use for the festival). In other words, flying to the closest airport isn’t your only option.

If you can’t find cheap flights to Bristol, look at London’s big airports. Heathrow is the busiest in the country, but doesn’t have service from budget airlines. Gatwick and Stansted are both more popular with budget airlines, so you may find better prices on flights into those airports. Another airport you might look at is Exeter, which is southwest of Glastonbury. There are often cheap flights to Exeter on Flybe.

photo by Glasto_2009