Reading Festival Tops Summer Season Chart

viagogo reveals most popular outdoor events of 2008.

(PRWEB) June 10, 2008 -- The Reading and Leeds festival is the most popular event on this year's summer social calendar according to figures released today by viagogo (www.viagogo.co.uk). The August Bank Holiday favourite tops the viagogo Summer Season Top 20, which ranks this summer's key outdoor dates in terms of the number of tickets sold on the secondary market. In a year when Glastonbury has been beset with problems and failed to sell-out, Reading has overtaken and claimed the festival crown.

Summer music festivals dominate the top 5 with heavyweights like V Festival, T in the Park and Isle of Wight remaining the biggest players despite increasing competition from smaller, boutique festivals. The enduring appeal of Radiohead is seen by their appearance at number 3 for their June dates in Victoria Park.

The top sporting event this summer on the secondary market is Royal Ascot, particularly Ladies Day, when focus switches from racing to fashion, and the annual hat parade! England's Test Series against South Africa is the next biggest draw for fans wanting to mix high quality sport with some serious socialising. Following close behind are perennial summer favourites, Wimbledon and The British Grand Prix.

Further down the list are events as diverse as Hard Rock Calling, this year featuring Eric Clapton and The Police, The Summer Series at Somerset House and Carmen at the Glyndenbourne Festival. It should be a great summer of live music and sport, so grab the champers and strawberries and cream and enjoy the new Summer Season!

Eric Baker, CEO of viagogo said, "This summer is promising to be an exciting one for live sport and music. This list proves that events like Reading, V Festival and T in the Park now define the Summer Season as much as more traditional English social events like Royal Ascot, Wimbledon and the Lord's Test."

Tickets for all these events and more are available on www.viagogo.co.uk.

viagogo Summer Season Top 20

1. Reading and Leeds Festival

2. V Festival

3. Radiohead Victoria Park

4. T in the Park

5. Isle of Wight Festival

6. Royal Ascot

7. England v SA Test Series

8. Wimbledon

9. 02 Wireless Festival

10. British Grand Prix

11. Oxegen Festival

12. Hard Rock Calling

13. Download Festival

14. Bestival

15. Summer Series at Somerset House

16. England Twenty20 Cricket

17. British Open

18. The Artois Championship

19. Carmen, Glyndenbourne Festival Opera

20. Glorious Goodwood

Notes to editors:

About viagogo

viagogo is Europe's leading ticket exchange that allows people to buy and sell live event tickets in a safe and 100% guaranteed way. viagogo is bringing efficiency and transparency to what has traditionally been a murky marketplace. By managing payment and delivery, viagogo guarantees that buyers will receive their tickets and sellers will receive payment. For this service, viagogo takes a commission which is a percentage of each exchange.

viagogo was launched in August 2006 with landmark deals to become the official secondary ticketing partner of two of the leading English football clubs Manchester United and Chelsea, making it the only way of legally re-selling tickets to these clubs, due to the special laws in England. Similar partnerships followed with German giants Bayern Munich, Everton, Portsmouth, Hearts and leading rugby clubs, Leicester Tigers and London Wasps.

In August 2007, viagogo launched operations in the U.S. with an exclusive partnership with the NFL's Cleveland Browns.

Deals followed with the likes of the Independent and Lastminute.com and Warner Music International became the first music label to partner with a secondary ticketing company. A deal between viagogo and Live Nation in the Netherlands was the first ever partnership between a secondary ticketing company and a music promotion company. viagogo pioneered the first charity auctions, working directly with music artists such as James Blunt and Peter Gabriel.

In May 2008, viagogo struck a partnership with the biggest female recording artist in the world. It became the official premium and secondary ticketing partner for Madonna's Sticky and Sweet European tour. This is the first time an artist has signed a deal of this kind, signalling a dramatic shift for both the recording and ticketing industries and proving viagogo to be a true market leader.

viagogo now provides fans with its safe, secure exchange in the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands and the US. Further expansion across Europe will follow in the near future.

viagogo was set up by Eric Baker, the co-founder of StubHub.com, the leading online secondary ticketing company in the US that was acquired in March 2007 by eBay for $307m.

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