tickets for Big Weekend in Exeter all gone in just over an hour

BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend 2016

Saturday 28th to Sunday 29th May 2016
Powderham Castle, Exeter, Devon, EX6 8JQ, England MAP
FREE (plus booking fee) - SOLD OUT

Daily capacity: 25,000

Tickets were snapped up in just over an hour for BBC Radio 1's annual free Big Weekend which will take place in Exeter's Powderham Castle on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th May 2016.

Fifty thousand tickets for Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Exeter were released at 8am this morning with more free tickets than ever available to local people living in Exeter and Teignbridge. Twenty five thousand eagerly-anticipated tickets were available for each day of the two-day event. Of the geographically weighted tickets, 60 per cent were reserved for residents living within the area covered by Exeter City and Teignbridge District Councils combined; 35 per cent were reserved for people living in the surrounding parts of the South West, which includes those with other Exeter (EX) and Torquay (TQ) postcodes, plus those with Truro (TR), Plymouth (PL), Taunton (TA) and Dorchester (DT) codes; while the remaining five per cent of tickets were for other audiences across the UK.

Neil Wyatt, Head of Live Music and Events, BBC Popular Music said, "We’re incredibly excited to be bringing Radio 1’s Big Weekend to Devon, and this year we’ve been able to give away a higher proportion of tickets than ever before to people living close to the event. The Big Weekend is always one of the highlights of the UK festival season and this year is shaping up to be one of the best ever - we’ve got a great line-up, a beautiful site and more young people attending from the host region than ever."

The first acts announced are Coldplay, The 1975, Jake Bugg, Ellie Goulding, Chase & Status, Bring Me The Horizon, and Craig David's TS5. Headline acts and a full line-up of international and UK artists, bands and DJs will be confirmed in the coming months.

Radio 1’s Big Weekend is now in its 13th year and will be produced in partnership with Exeter City and Teignbridge District Councils. The annual festival travels to areas of the UK that don’t typically host large-scale music events of this kind. For the fifth year running, in the lead-up to Big Weekend, Radio 1 and BBC Learning will produce Radio 1’s Academy, which aims to inspire local 16-19-year-olds to take the next step in creative careers. Radio 1’s Academy will include a series of special events, local engagement and face-to-face activity in the area, which begins in April and culminates in May with a week of radio shows, gigs, masterclasses and Q&As. Keep listening to Radio 1 for further details.

discuss this news on the Festival Forums