Glastonbury Festival Wristbands:
More Than Just a Ticket

Client
Glastonbury Festival

Year
2010-2016

Overview

For many years I collaborated closely with Glastonbury Festival to design and produce their official entry wristbands, playing a critical role in both access control, and brand storytelling.

These wristbands are more than just functional credentials; they become cultural artifacts, each one reflecting the unique identity of that year’s festival, and serving as a lasting memento for festivalgoers.

The designs are now recognized as cultural icons, with several included in the permanent collection of the world’s leading design museum, the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Challenge

With over 200,000 attendees annually, security is paramount. Each year, the festival adopts a new visual theme, setting the tone across signage, staging, and merchandise. My challenge was to:

  • Create complex designs that offer high-level counterfeit protection

  • Reflect each year’s theme with original, visually stunning designs

  • Deliver a memorable experience that aligns with Glastonbury's cultural significance

  • Maintain sustainability and durability for a multi-day outdoor event

Thematic Integration

Each year, Glastonbury’s creative team revealed a theme that reflected current cultural moods, musical influences, or visual motifs.

I interpreted that theme into woven wristband form, blending color palettes, iconography, and typography inspired by stage designs, posters, and site decor.

Different designs were required for each access level (including guests, artists and vendors) which needed to have the same design language, but be easily distinguished for security.

Collaboration with Glastonbury’s team was essential to ensure the wristbands harmonized with the larger visual ecosystem of the festival each year.

Multiple colorful festival wristbands with designs and logos, including Greenpeace, WaterAid, and Glastonbury Festival, arranged on a gray background.

Security Through Design

My understanding of material-specific design was essential to creating viable and high-quality woven products, and to enhance security through the designs:

  • Variable tension weaving for raised, tactile patterns that standard looms can’t mimic

  • Metallic and optical threads that pop and deter counterfeits

  • UV-reactive stitching that glows in the dark

  • Tamper-proof barrel locks to prevent sharing

  • Encrypted woven numbering

  • Covert, year-specific design quirks know only to myself and the head of ticketing

Colorful silicone wristband and multiple paper tickets with blue rubber bands, all featuring the 'Glastonbury' music festival branding.

Cultural Impact

What began as functional credentials became collectible keepsakes. Fans often wore their wristbands for months, or even years, after the festival ended, symbolizing not just attendance, but identity and belonging.

In 2017, the Victoria and Albert Museum acquired several Glastonbury wristbands designed by me for their permanent collection, citing their role as "contemporary textiles that merge function with fashion, security with storytelling." The museum now displays these wristbands alongside iconic items of British cultural history.

Glastonbury Wristbands In the V&A Museum London England

Results

Over 1.2 million wristbands delivered in my seven-year tenure with this client.

  • Limited instances of wristband counterfeiting across all years, all fakes were easily identified

  • Wristbands became cultural symbols, referenced in press, photography, and festival recaps

  • Set the standard for secure, thematic wristband design across the live event industry

A man wearing black sunglasses and a black jacket, making a gesture with hands raised and palms open, with wristbands on his wrist.
A man with tattoos, wearing a dark hoodie and jewelry, speaking into a microphone against a blue background.
A woman with blonde hair wearing a wide-brim white hat, round sunglasses, and bright red lipstick, dressed in a light-colored blazer with colorful bracelets on her wrist, standing outdoors on a sunny day.
Crowd of people celebrating at a concert or festival, with many holding flags and waving, red confetti falling from above, and a dark background.
Close-up of a person's wrist wearing a fabric wristband with red and blue embroidery, possibly from an event, resting on a wooden surface.
A cylindrical lampshade made from colorful recycled festival wristbands.
Male performer wearing sunglasses and a cream-colored tuxedo jacket with a bow tie, singing into a microphone with his right hand raised.
A young man with blonde hair and tattoos is on stage holding a microphone in his right hand, raising his left hand with his index finger pointing up, with a colorful LED backdrop behind him.
A woman with long dark hair singing into a microphone, wearing a colorful tie-dye shirt and various bracelets, with a neutral background.