Live8 tickets boost

Bob Geldof negotiated more Live8 tickets.
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

An extra 55,000 people will be able to watch the Live8 concert in Hyde Park - making it the biggest official live music event in British history.

Bob Geldof has struck a deal with the Royal Parks to release a new batch of tickets for the event on Saturday, allowing fans to watch the concert in the open air on huge screens erected near the Serpentine lake.

More than two million people applied by text lottery for the initial 150,000 places, but 205,000 will now be able to descend on Hyde Park to see a star-studded line-up including U2, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Madonna, Sir Paul McCartney, Sting, Coldplay, Annie Lennox, Joss Stone, Ms Dynamite, The Who and Razorlight.

The new free tickets will be available from 3pm on Wednesday. The event will also go on until later than originally planned, finishing at 9.30pm instead of 8pm.

Geldof said: "This is going to be the biggest event in Hyde Park's history and the biggest ticketed event ever in the UK. The park will be filled to the brim.

"In other cities around the country and around the world millions of people will be joining in to make poverty history. It will be one of those defining moments that come around once in a generation." It comes just days after police chiefs outlawed Geldof 's plans to allow an extra 100,000 unticketed people into Hyde Park to watch the action on giant screens.

They said the idea was "unworkableî but last-ditch talks resulted in the new plan to let in 55,000 more ticketed guests.

A spokesman said: "Live8 and the authorities were initially concerned about massive crowds turning up at unticketed screens in the park but the solution, where pairs of tickets will be handed out free of charge at selected venues in the capital and around the UK, has put everybody's minds at rest."

Organisers are however warning of potential chaos on Saturday.

A spokesman added: "Ticket holders for Hyde Park could take an hour to get into the park and through the queuing system. With the event due to run for more than seven hours it will be a long day and people are being advised to prepare accordingly."

Giant screens broadcasting the event will also be erected in Liverpool, Manchester, Inverness, Leeds, Cardiff, Newcastle and Bournemouth.

Live8 is expected to be the biggest globally televised event ever, with more than 5.5 billion viewers - 85 per cent of the world's population - believed to be tuning in.

The concert will be beamed simultaneously across 140 countries and fans will be able to tune in via the internet to any of the eight venues during the day.

More than 100 acts will appear in London, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Philadelphia, Toronto, Tokyo and Johannesburg.

The Hyde Park gig will form the centrepiece of the show, aimed at pressurising the world's richest nations to relieve world poverty.

It is rumoured that U2 and Sir Paul McCartney will open the London leg with a version of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, singing: "It was 20 years ago today" - a reference to the original Live Aid concert at Wembley in 1985.

And it is expected to end with a rendition of The Long and Winding Road, a rallying call for people to travel to Edinburgh to put pressure on the G8 summit starting four days later.

HOW TO GET THEM

The 55,000 added free tickets will be available from 3pm on Wednesday from the Carling Hammersmith Apollo, Stargreen Tickets in Argyll Street, the Apollo Victoria and the Dominion Theatre

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in