Festival sells out in three hours

All 112,000 tickets for this year's Glastonbury festival sold out within three hours of going on sale yesterday - even though the line-up has yet to be confirmed.

Fans hoping to brave the festival mud to see acts which might include Kylie Minogue, clogged phone lines to buy the £125 tickets at 9am.

Some punters complained that lines were constantly engaged despite a doubling of the number of switchboard operators.

Festival founder Michael Eavis said the ticket selling system worked 'like a dream', beating his target of selling out in five hours.

Atotal of 20,000 tickets were sold over the phone, it is believed.

Mr Eavis said there was no repeat of last year's chaos in which phone lines jammed and the festival website crashed.

He added that tickets were limited to two per person in a bid to beat the touts while a further 8,000 were sold in the Glastonbury area.

Fans will have to produce personal ID matching the name on their ticket to get into the festival.

The final line-up will be confirmed on June 1 but Kylie Minogue, Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson, Coldplay and The White Stripes are tipped to perform at the event in Somerset from June 24 to 26.

Mr Eavis said that some 'seriously powerful bands' would perform on the newly renamed John Peel stage.

There will be no festival in 2006.