Warning over fake Reading tickets

Arctic Monkeys are one of the headliners at this year's festival

Music fans have been warned not to buy tickets for this year's Reading Festival from unauthorised sellers.

Weekend and day tickets for the event, which will feature Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon, have already sold out.

Trading standards said it has so far identified 70 bogus sites and directed people to the festival's official site.

Some ticket and travel packages are still available while a scheme for buying unwanted tickets can also be found on the site.

'Customer's desperation'

Last year thousands of people were left disappointed when tickets they bought online failed to materialise.

This year's event takes place between 28-30 August.

Councillor Paul Gittings, lead for environment and sustainability, said: "People should take care to only buy from the official website and beware fakes.

"The difficulty we have is that some of these websites are very impressive indeed and designed to entice and attract consumers into using them.

"The whole appearance and layout of these sites makes them look official and genuine.

"Many of these websites are simply online ticket touts, resellers of tickets, who are working on the customer's desperation by promising tickets for a sold out event."