30,000 tickets for open-air event

The Mighty Boosh are to curate the first major open-air comedy festival, to be held this summer.

Around 30,000 tickets, priced £50, have gone on sale for the one-day festival, which takes place at the Hop Farm, near Tonbridge in Kent, on Saturday July 5.

None of the line-up supporting the Boosh has yet been announced, but the scale of the event puts live comedy on an even footing with music. The following day Hop Farm will be hosting a music festival, headlined by Neil Young and including Primal Scream and Supergrass.

The Boosh’s Noel Fielding said: ‘We've never played a music festival before and a comic has never headlined a festival before, so we are seizing the opportunity and doing both.’

The event is being organised by Vince Power, whose many enterprises have included the Reading festival, and promoter Phil McIntyre, whose tour roster has included Ricky Gervais, Peter Kay and Strictly Come Dancing Live.

In a statement, they said: ‘We thought long and hard about putting on a comedy festival and convinced The Mighty Boosh that they were the right choice for the first major open-air comedy festival of its kind.’

Click here to buy tickets.

Published: 22 Apr 2008