Glastonbury chiefs hail early sales

4:10pm Monday 6th October 2008

Glastonbury Festival organisers said they were 'pretty chuffed' after half the tickets for next year's event were sold or reserved, eight months in advance.

Tickets for the music and arts jamboree in Somerset went on sale on Sunday morning at 9am and by early evening over half the 137,500 places were snapped up.

Spokesman John Shearlaw said Michael Eavis and his team were 'very calm' despite demand for tickets having 'dropped off' by 7pm. The sales lines will remain open for another week, before a second round of sales on April 6 which bosses hope will see the remaining compliment taken.

After a half-hour bottleneck with dedicated festival goers racing online or picking up the phone, enquiries came through smoothly.

Mr Shearlaw said it would have been 'extraordinary' if all the tickets had sold out immediately, so far in advance.

He said: "That would have been extraordinary, without a line-up and eight months before the event. You can look at it from both sides because if they had all sold out, there would have been eight months of turning people away!

"We are very calm about it - it's a vote of confidence. While its been too early for some people, our regulars, like students, obviously see it as a good deal to put £50 now and pay the rest later. We are pretty chuffed."

He denied that a rainy Sunday had got people out of the festival mood, saying: "It's brilliant that here we are in October talking about a festival that isn't happening until next year.

He added: "This is the third year of pre-registration and we are the one festival that can say our tickets are not going to touts."

After the first round of sales, the remaining tickets will be offered on the 5th April.