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Queues wait for Castle
Concert tickets

by Lynn Cox

The Will Young gig at Rochester's Castle Concerts is already
proving to be a huge draw.

Tickets for the July 15 show went on sale this morning, Monday,
and instant demand meant problems accessing the tickets
website and a big queue outside the Visitor Information Centre in
Rochester High Street.

Lorraine Thistleton, from Gillingham, said:
“We want to go and see Will Young, but just can’t get on the
website.

“The council’s marketing department sent out
an email at 7am this morning, saying I could by tickets, but I
couldn’t get them. When I called the council I was told they didn’t
go on sale until 10am.

"Not only can’t we get them online, we can’t
get them via the telephone either, we’ve been ringing the box
office number all morning and it’s either engaged or saying its out
of order.

Meanwhile, around 300 people waited
outside the Visitor Information Centre where tickets for The
Saturdays Castle Concert on July 16 had also gone on sale.

Meanwhile, tickets for the Will Young concert
were being sold on eBay this morning, four were available for £250
as opposed to the sale price of £130.

Attempts by Medway Messenger staff to buy
tickets via the Castle Concerts website only led to a message
saying: “Due to high number of customer currently accessing this
site, we regret that our server is unable to handle your query at
this time. Please try again later.”

Also trying to buy tickets was Madeline
Chainey, from mhs homes, who said: “I needed to buy tickets as
we want to give them away as competition prizes.

“I’ve been to the Rochester visitor Centre to
get four tickets, but the queue is massive, they only have one till
there, so it’s taking such a long time.

“In the end I went to The Brook Theatre and
managed to get them without too much difficulty."

Another woman who didn’t want to be named
said: “The online booking for Castle Concerts has crashed because
so many people are trying to log on.

“I called the council's customer services
department and a woman just told me Status Quo is sold out already,
but the email I received telling me the tickets were on sale said
there were about 50 left.”

A spokesman for Medway Council said: "There is
currently a high volume of customers accessing the website and box
office phone lines for tickets. Due to this, the website and phone
lines are extremely busy. We apologise for any inconvenience this
causes and would encourage customers to keep trying."