Glasto organisers 'chuffed' at early sales

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 yesterday morning at 9am and by early evening more than half the 137,500 places were snapped up.

Music fans are able reserve places for 2009 by paying a £50 deposit, or simply buy their tickets outright at £175 each (plus booking fee).

The sales lines will remain open for another week and will reopen on April 5 when bosses hope the remainder will be sold.

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

"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 it's 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.

"It's brilliant that here we are in October talking about a festival that isn't happening until next year.

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

Organiser Michael Eavis said on the festival's website: "It's really exciting that people are still remembering one of the best festivals we've ever held and are clearly already looking forward to the next one.

"June saw the most diverse audience for 10 years or so, and hopefully this new fairer ticket system will mean that we have a great crowd again in 2009."

Mr Eavis said tickets were being sold so early to ensure they all went to genuine festival fans who could stagger their payments.

No limit has been set on the amount of tickets a customer can buy or reserve for family or friends, as long as each is matched to a valid registration number.

Speaking on Radio Five Live yesterday Mr Eavis refused to give details of possible acts but said that three 'oldies' would feature.

This summer over 130,000 revellers watched acts like rapper Jay-Z, troubled singer Amy Winehouse and veteran songwriter Leonard Cohen.

Next year's Glastonbury runs for five days from June 24 to 28 across 1,000 acres of countryside at the Eavis family's Worthy Farm.