Websites are jammed as tickets for Reading Festival sell in minutes

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Phone lines were jammed, the joint festival website crashed and retail vendor HMV reported customers were queuing "around several blocks" across the country.

This year's headline performers will be Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead and the Kings of Leon.

Weekend passes priced at £175 for the August Bank Holiday gig went on sale at 7pm yesterday.

Last year 200,000 tickets for the events at Reading and Leeds sold out in just two hours in shops, over the telephone and online.

But a spokesman for HMV said that this year's had sold out in record time. "We are now at full capacity," he said. "All tickets went within minutes. I've never seen anything like it. All vendors have sold out. HMV saw twice as many customers than it had tickets."

The Kaiser Chiefs, Fall Out Boy, Placebo, Funeral for a Friend, Maximo Park, Bloc Party, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Gossip and Glasvegas will also be performing at Richfield Avenue in Reading and Bramham Park, Leeds.

A Reading council spokeswoman said that there was an increased demand for tickets this year because none would be sold on the door.

She added: "Following discussions between Festival Republic and Reading Borough Council, it has now been agreed that no tickets will be sold on the door at future events."

Last year The Killers, Metallica and Rage Against the Machine wowed crowds at the events, which are held over three days.

Organisers Festival Republic today promised more big name acts would be confirmed in coming weeks.

The Reading Festival started back in the summer of 1961, under the guise of the National Jazz Festival.

Melvyn Benn, from music festival promoter Mean Fiddler, said artists clamoured to play on the main stage at events such as Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds.