Glastonbury Ticket Mayhem!

Hundreds of thousands have been up all night scrambling for tickets for this year's Glastonbury festival.

Tickets went on sale last night (April 1) at 8pm, and both the phoneline and website were quickly jammed.

Many have been left unhappy after several hours of unsuccessful efforts to get hold of tickets, some complaining that the outlets were not working properly. But Glastonbury boss Michael Eavis said it was simply a case of 'unprecedented demand'.

A statement posted on the official Glasto' site this morning reads: "Last night when Glastonbury tickets went on sale there was a phenomenal demand. Aloud.com, who sold the Madonna and Robbie Williams concerts, described the level of interest as "unprecedented".

"There were over 2 million unique user hits between 7pm and 8pm last night - and that was before the tickets went on sale!

"At one minute past eight over 300,000 hit the website and that level was sustained until well after 2am. Tickets sold steadily through the night and are still selling.
"To those that have been up all night, please stick with it. At 9am today (Friday) 70 % of the tickets had been sold. There still are significant numbers of tickets available!

"There are some 200 telephone operators staffing the ticketline 0870 830 2004 and they will be there until tickets sell out.
"The added security means that transactions are taking longer, but that is not the cause for the phones ringing engaged. It is simply down to the level of demand.
"Website sales have continued steadily through the night - the site has never gone down, but numbers have been such that it has been difficult to access the site... However web sales are continuing steadily."

DL