Radio 1's Big Weekend in Exeter sells out in an hour
Fifty thousand tickets for Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Exeter were released at 8am today during The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw - with more free tickets than ever available to local people living in Exeter and Teignbridge.
Twenty five thousand eagerly-anticipated tickets were available for each day of the two-day event which takes place at Powderham Castle on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May.
The lucky ticket-holders will enjoy performances from the likes of Coldplay, Ellie Goulding, The 1975, Chase And Status, Bring Me The Horizon, Craig David and Jake Bugg.
Hosted by Radio 1 DJs, Big Weekend is Europe’s biggest free ticketed event and has an unrivalled reputation for attracting live performances from some of the biggest and freshest UK and international acts, bringing the nation together for a shared live music moment.
The full line-up for Radio 1’s flagship music event will be revealed on the station soon.
For this year’s event, more Big Weekend tickets than ever were made available for people living in Exeter, Teignbridge and the surrounding areas. Of the geographically weighted tickets, 60 per cent were reserved for residents living within the area covered by Exeter
City and Teignbridge District Councils combined; 35 per cent were reserved for people living in the surrounding parts of the South West, which includes those with other Exeter (EX) and Torquay (TQ) postcodes, plus those with Truro (TR), Plymouth (PL), Taunton (TA) and Dorchester (DT) codes; while the remaining five per cent of tickets were for other audiences across the UK.
Neil Wyatt, Head of Live Music and Events, BBC Popular Music says: “We’re incredibly excited to be bringing Radio 1’s Big Weekend to Devon, and this year we’ve been able to give away a higher proportion of tickets than ever before to people living close to the event. The Big Weekend is always one of the highlights of the UK festival season and this year is shaping up to be one of the best ever - we’ve got a great line-up, a beautiful site and more young people attending from the host region than ever.”
Radio 1’s Big Weekend is now in its 13th year, and will be produced in partnership with Exeter City and Teignbridge District Councils. The annual festival travels to areas of the UK that don’t typically host large-scale music events of this kind. As well as shining a spotlight on the host city in the lead-up to the event and via coverage, Radio 1’s Big Weekend provides a major boost to the local economy.
For the fifth year running, in the lead-up to Big Weekend, Radio 1 and BBC Learning will produce Radio 1’s Academy, which aims to inspire local 16-19 year-olds to take the next step in creative careers. Radio 1’s Academy will include a series of special events, local engagement and face-to-face activity in the area, which begins in April and culminates in May with a week of radio shows, gigs, masterclasses and Q&As. Keep listening to Radio 1 for further details.
Radio 1’s Big Weekend will be broadcast live on Radio 1, streamed in vision at bbc.co.uk/radio1, with highlights on 1Xtra. All performances will be available to watch on demand on Radio 1’s BBC iPlayer channel (bbc.co.uk/tv/radio1).
