How TikTok boosted Glastonbury fundraising

Mobile coverage and access to social media platforms at Glastonbury is vital for music fans, who are keen to post photos and videos of their favourite acts and catching up with friends.

 

It’s quite the spectacle as around 250,000 people gather across farmland in picturesque Somerset, with Glastonbury Tor in the distance and dozens of stages full of hundreds of acts, from the biggest rock bands on the planet to comedians, street entertainers, and plenty more. 

 

With this increasing focus on social media at the event in mind, the festival’s organisers have linked up with video content platform TikTok for the first time to raise money for the event’s charity partners, Oxfam and WaterAid.

                               

We look in detail at this link up and how it fits into the event’s charitable ethos.

 

 

Growth of the Glastonbury Festival

 

Glastonbury Festival was created by Somerset dairy farmer Michael Eavis in 1970 at his farm in Pilton, Somerset, with acts including T. Rex. Festival goers there also got a pint of milk included in their ticket.

 

Since then, it has spread out across the Eavis’s neighbouring farms and a quarter of a million people attend across five days. Even more watch at home as the event is broadcast by the BBC each year. Michael’s daughter Emily Eavis now plays a central role in running the event.

 

This year’s line-up includes the Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, and Elton John, who are all headlining the event’s iconic Pyramid Stage. Other acts playing include Lizzo, Royal Blood, Lana Del Rey, and Queens of the Stone Age.

 

As in previous year’s tickets sold out on the day of release due to its popularity.

 

 

Glastonbury Festival and charities

 

The event has a strong charity focus, with visible corporate involvement limited to the event’s mobile partner Vodafone, which also runs recharging points for festival goers. This year Vodafone took over as mobile partner for the event from EE.

 

The main brand exposure is instead given to the event’s two charity partners Oxfam and WaterAid.

 

In addition, Michael Eavis has a strong charitable ethos for improving the lives of those in his local Somerset community and has donated land for social housing for local people. This project involves the Guinness Partnership and includes more than 50 homes.

 

Earlier in 2023 Oxfam ran a fundraising competition offering people the chance to win 10 pairs of tickets to the Festival to raise money for the Disasters Emergency Committee, for communities impacted by the Turkey and Syria earthquakes.

 

This smashed its £600,000 target, raising £680,000 within days of launching.

 

 

Glastonbury and TikTok

 

This partnership has been focused on encouraging TikTok users to use the TikTok LIVE gifting function, where users can send and receive virtual gifts, to help raise money for Oxfam and Water Aid.

 

For the link up four new gifts have been created exclusively for the Glastonbury Festival. These are themed around iconic images from the event, including its Ribbon Tower, in the site’s Park area, hats, crowds and flags.

 

For each of these gifts sent TikTok has been donating to the two charities. 

Ahead of the event TikTok has been incentivising creators to raise as much money as possible for the charities. The top three creators in terms of gifts being sent during their content earlier this month were able to win two tickets each to the festival.

 

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with TikTok LIVE as a recipient charity for this inspiring campaign in the run up to one of the world’s most iconic music events,” said WaterAid UK Social Media Manager Elior Doani. “Glastonbury Festival is an absolute highlight of the year for us to raise awareness of our mission to make clean water and decent toilets a normal part of life for everyone everywhere.”

“The climate crisis is a water crisis and this year we will be back onsite at the Festival with our incredible team of volunteers inviting the public to join Our Climate Fight campaign. We’re grateful to the TikTok community who already engage with our content and support our cause and are excited to see how creators get involved in sharing these unique new gifts.”

 

Earlier in 2023 TikTok used its LIVE gifting to raise money for Comic Relief for its Red Nose Day event.

Tik Tok LIVE UK and Ireland Lead Harrison Foster said: "We’re honoured to work with Glastonbury Festival and their charity partners to provide a new and exciting way for our creators and community to come together and raise money and awareness for important causes.

 

He added: “We hope that this campaign can help inspire the creativity of the many talented musicians on TikTok whose dream it is to one day play on the stages of the UK’s most iconic music festival.”