THOUSANDS of tickets for the first day of the free Warrington Music Festival have been snapped up, with demand causing the website to briefly crash.

Tickets were released at 9am today, Friday, and by 1.10pm, the 2,800 free tickets had been claimed.

Ian Cox, centre director at Golden Square which is hosting the event on May 4 and 5, said: “The response has been phenomenal. As soon as we announced that we were bringing Shaun Ryder’s Black Grape to headline the event there was a huge buzz of excitement across social media and once the tickets were made available the interest only grew further.

"The demand for the ticketed event was so huge that our website briefly crashed but we soon managed to get it back up-and-running, so people could register for their tickets.

"It’s been an amazing few hours and we’re all absolutely thrilled that this year’s Warrington Music Festival is already gearing up to be the most popular yet.”

Golden Square and Warrington BID will be hosting the two-day free event at the shopping centre’s Old Market Square.

The bank holiday week of live music will feature performances from Shaun Ryder’s Black Grape, The Farm, Fez and Clint Boon on the Saturday evening and more than 20 up-and-coming bands headlined by Winachi Tribe on the Sunday.

Ian added: “While the Saturday evening tickets have been snapped up, it’s worth remembering that the Sunday event is open to everyone between 12pm and 11pm, and really makes for a great start to the bank holiday.”