Glastonbury Tickets Sell Out In Two Hours

Tickets for the Glastonbury festival have sold out in under two hours.

Fears that a registration system, designed to prevent touting, would put off fans were not realised when 400,000 signed up. The 137,500 tickets which were available to the public were snapped up just one hour 45 minutes after going on sale on Sunday at 0900 BST.

Organisers said they were happy with how the sales went despite websites and phonelines struggling to cope.

Sell-out

In 2005, when the last Glastonbury Festival took place, tickets sold out in less than three hours - a record in the event's history.

The Arctic Monkeys, Dame Shirley Bassey and The Who will all perform at the festival, but the full line-up will not be released until June. Michael Eavis, who owns the farm where the festival is based, said: "We had a quarter of a million of people queuing up to get through. It's probably the fastest time we have ever sold out. We had coach package tickets as well and people were forced to buy those at the tail end of the sale."

He was also pleased the system of registering and then using a reference number had worked well. "Its a great system. It's the first time it's ever been done - it's just gone so well it's just unbelievable. The system has worked really, really well and it's a first. Unfortunately there will be a lot of people that will be disappointed. Only two in three get through, but such is the demand of the festival - but that is in itself great after 37 years of trying to get it right."

Licence agreed

Tickets without coach travel cost £145 with fans able to buy up to four each. Over the years, Mr Eavis has massively increased investment into preventing gate-crashers and drug dealers entering the site. Earlier this week Mendip District Council in Somerset approved a four-year licence deal, securing the festival's future until 2010.

The 177,000 capacity event takes place in Somerset from 22-24 June.

Source: BBC