Wicksteed open air theatre: 'We're sorry for Craig David ticket sale chaos'

Bosses at Wicksteed Park's open air theatre have apologised after their site crashed this morning (Wednesday) when hundreds tried to buy tickets to see Craig David.

Pre-sale emails were sent out at 10am, giving excited fans the first opportunity to grab a ticket to see the global superstar at the Kettering park on August 28.

But the demand to see the R&B and garage legend was so high it caused the website to crash, leaving many stuck in a queue or kicked out when they had tickets in their basket.

Others reported having cash taken from their account after securing tickets but not receiving a confirmation email, with some charged multiple times when they got errors on previous attempts to purchase tickets.

One fan said: "Yet again the site crashes due to demand. Lessons not being learnt or applied here. I’m just hoping I can get UB40 tickets when they go on sale after the fiasco of the comedy night ‘pre’ sale farce."

Another said: "People have sat online for at least 2 hours with link after link not working. This is so disappointing for the ones who set an alarm for tickets to do first come, first served...we will now miss out from no fault of our own but down to your website and bad organisation! FUMING."

And another said: "I have wasted the best part of 2 hours of my life trying to get tickets and am now in a holding queue which isn't moving.

"I have never known a drama like this to purchase tickets before!!!! - It's an absolute joke! I have had tickets in my basket 5 times and when I go to pay it kicks me out."

The open air theatre said a queuing system hadn't been implemented by the company they instructed to do so and said they "completely understood" the frustrations of those trying to buy a ticket.

Just after 1pm they said the issues had been resolved and said new pre-sale ticket links had been sent out.

A spokesman said: "We can confirm the issues with the website have now been resolved, and you should have all been sent an email to purchase your pre-sale tickets. You will be placed in a queue and then will be able to purchase your tickets. Tickets are only able to be purchased online, no orders will be able to be placed through the telephone today.

"We can only apologise for the difficulties everyone has faced when attempting to purchase tickets due to the website malfunction.

"We appreciate your patience and will ensure that this doesn't happen again in the future!"