THE V FESTIVAL sold out today in a record-breaking 80 minutes, with fans snapping up tickets for the annual two-day musical extravaganza.

James Duffy, spokesman for the event, at Weston Park, confirmed that tickets had sold out in less than an-hour-and-a-half.

Ticket touts cashed in on the sell-out by offering tickets on eBay within hours of them being on sale. Single tickets that had been bought for £179 were being resold for more than £300, with plenty on offer.

Fans are being urged to avoid booking through unofficial outlets amid fears that they will be ripped off by bogus traders.

Dawn Woodhouse, from the V Festival, said: “There are a number of unofficial website addresses purporting to sell tickets for V Festival. Our message to people is simple; don’t be conned.”

She added that fans could search for V Festival transport and ticket packages through official outlets by visiting www.vfestival.com

Guarantee

Ms Woodhouse said unless people bought from an official outlet, they had no guarantee that they would receive their tickets.

Many fans were left disappointed that they had been unable to obtain tickets.

Jo Cunningham, of Shrewsbury, said: “It is really annoying. The thing that riles me is that genuine fans who want tickets can’t get them — but touts are already selling them.”

Mrs Cunningham said she had access to five different websites and several phone lines but was unable to get connected.

Her husband Allan and three of his friends failed to get through.

“We tried every outlet and the answer was the same: sold out,” he said.

This year’s line-up features some of the world’s biggest stars with Eminem due to headline the Weston Park stage on August 20 and Arctic Monkeys appearing a day later.

Rihanna and Plan B will be the two support acts while the headline artists for the V Festival’s second stage will be Dizzee Rascal and Primal Scream. Fans are already counting down the 168 days to the event.

The line-up will also feature Duran Duran, The Script, Kaiser Chiefs, Bruno Mars, Razorlight, Manic Street Preachers, The Saturdays, Scouting for Girls and Mark Ronson.