More than half a million people have registered for Radio 1s Big Weekend in Mote Park, Maidstone.

In a year when rapper Jay-Z is getting the blame for the slowest Glastonbury registration on record, it seems Madonna, The Kooks and The Raconteurs are having no trouble pulling the crowds.

It helps that it’s free of course.

When registration closed at 10am yesterday, a grand total of 518,575 people had signed up to win a pair of tickets to the festival on May 10 and May 11.

With between 30,000 to 40,000 tickets up for grabs it makes the chances of success about 30 to 1.

But the odds are better for people living in Maidstone, who have been promised the bulk of the tickets.

In Preston last year, about 470,000 people tried to get their hands on 20,000 tickets.