More tickets for Reading Festival

About 80,000 people will now attend the August Bank Holiday event

More tickets are to go on sale for the 2006 Reading Festival after organisers managed to convince the local council to increase its capacity.

An extra 15,000 tickets will go on sale from Tuesday - taking the total number of people at the festival, held on August Bank Holiday weekend, to 80,000.

Acts this year include Pearl Jam, Placebo and the Arctic Monkeys.

Mean Fiddler boss Melvyn Benn, who organises the event, said it needed to grow to stay ahead of the competition.

He said: "I need 15,000 in order to be staying in the marketplace.

"Other events are growing and growing quickly and if Reading Festival wants to maintain its position as the premier rock festival in the world, which I know it does and I want it to, then we've got to grow."