MUSIC lovers hoping to grab tickets for this year’s Nibley Music Festival will be disappointed after the event sold out in less than 36 hours.

Tickets for the village-run music festival went on sale at midnight on March 1, within half an hour almost 400 tickets had sold, and within 36 hours all 3,800 tickets had been snapped up.

Chris Gordon, one of the organisers, said they knew the festival, which is held in July at North Nibley playing field, had grown in popularity but were overwhelmed by the speed the tickets sold.

He said: "It’s unprecedented to have lots of people waiting at midnight to purchase tickets for Nibley.

"It’s taken us all by surprise. We knew there was a build up in demand from last year but we had no idea this might happen."

Chris said he believes social media such as Twitter had helped to raise the profile of the festival.

He said: "You could sense things building on social media before the tickets went on sale."

In previous years the tickets, which have been limited to 3,800 since the festival began in 2007, have taken several months to sell and for the first four years tickets were available to buy on the day.

However, according to Chris anyone hoping festival organisers might release more tickets will just have to wait until next year to get their hands on any.

Chris said: "It goes without saying if we wanted to, which we don’t, we could have doubled the tickets we sold.

"Although we know there is huge demand for our tickets we are determined to stay small. We want to be the best small music festival in the country."

He added: "We believe we can stay a small festival like we are but still be able to put on good music, and carve out a little niche for ourselves."

Acts already confirmed for this year include The Selecter, The Christians, Dodgy, Proud Mary and The Roving Crows.