The ticketing is run by Cambridge Corn Exchange box office. After last year, I pointed them in the direction of the BBC message board, which was literally smoking, and I got a reply from the manager, who admitted it was 'chastening reading'. They have really put in a lot of measures this year to try and improve the situation, but always some people will be disappointed. So don't slag them off, they have really tried but the situation is caused by mass panic.

In my opinion, this is solely due to the involvement of Radio 2. Before they took over as sponsors, there was none of this hype, and you could buy your tickets normally like you do for any other festival. Now the panic gets worse every year. The festival has not changed in any way, the guests booked are not any better, it's just that more people want to go because they think it's somehow better than all the others.

If I didn't live only 15 miles away I wouldn't make so much effort to go every year. I certainly wouldn't sit glued to a phone for 2 days, there are plenty of other festivals just as good. But we got up at 4 to get in the queue, and got our tickets. There were people there who had come from Hastings, Yorkshire, etc and stayed in a B&B overnight so they could have a better chance of getting tickets. It all depends how much you want them...