Flurry of ticket sales as Burnley's Towneley Live festival nears (From This Is Lancashire)

Flurry of ticket sales as Burnley's Towneley Live festival nears

10:38am Thursday 11th August 2011 in Leisure By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter

STAGE Crew start to assemble the stage

ALMOST 9,000 tickets have now been sold for this weekend’s Towneley Live festival.

Organisers said there had been a flurry of sales this week as half-price tickets sparked a late rush.

At the end of last week 6,000 tickets had gone.

They also said that the festival, which has been criticised for its pricing structure, would “definitely” go ahead next year.

Harry Ashworth, a director of LiveWyre, the company behind the event, said: “The weather has hampered progress a bit but preparations are going well.

“We are now up to around 8,500 to 9,000 tickets sold so hopefully that will go up further still.”

However, plans to give people who had paid full price for their tickets better facilities and a better viewing area have been scrapped.

Instead, those who paid full price will be given a discount voucher to redeem for next year’s event.

Mr Ashworth said: “We had too many complaints over the ticket structure so that is what we have decided to do.

“If they retain their ticket stubs then we will put a message out with how to get the voucher.

“It will definitely go ahead next year."

Some of the biggest bands in pop, including Scouting for Girls, N-Dubz, McFly and The Saturdays, are booked to appear at Saturday’s event.

Organisers LiveWyre had hoped to attract up to 30,000 people to the event in Towneley Park, the first of its kind to be held in Burnley, when it was first announced in April.

Tickets are available at HMV, Burnley Mechanics and Burnley Football Club.

Tickets cannot be purchased from Towneley Park on the day, but they can be obtained from the outlets above all day on the Saturday.