A HUDDERSFIELD business has helped set a new record for ticket sales for the UK's biggest rock festival.
Majestic Interactive, based at the former Majestic cinema in Viaduct Street, has won praise from festival organisers for outwitting the ticket touts.
Majestic developed the online booking system for the massive three-day Glastonbury Festival to be held in June.
The 137,500 tickets went on sale at 9am on Sunday and were sold out in less than two hours.
That's almost half the three hours taken to sell 112,000 tickets in 2005 when the festival was last staged.
Majestic developed the ticketing system for internet-based booking agency See Tickets.
The system sought to tackle the touts by requiring would-be festival-goers to register their details online during February to get a unique registration ID.
The ID could then be used to order tickets online on April 1.
As part of the security measures, people registering had to submit a passport-sized photo, which will be printed on their ticket.
The system was praised by festival organiser Michael Eavis, who said: "I'm absolutely thrilled. It seems to have been a 100% success."
Mr Eavis said that tickets sold on Sunday appeared to be absent from internet auction sites such as eBay.
In 2005, tickets for the three-day event changed hands for up to £700 on the black market.
"Two or three years after we started trying to get rid of touts, we've achieved it," said Mr Eavis.
Majestic managing director Julien Balmforth said: "We are delighted with the results of the sale.
"Selling such a large volume of tickets in such a short space of time is a fantastic achievement for See Tickets and Majestic."
Mr Balmforth added: "The positive feedback received about the system from the ticket-buying fans has also been a massive plus and confirms the efforts made to make the ticket buying process as fair and straightforward as possible."
The Arctic Monkeys, The Killers and The Who will headline the festival this year.
