Update: Soft Glastonbury Ticket Sales Spur Jay-Z Pullout Rumor

LONDON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Glastonbury has long held a place as the top ticket for the Summer festival scene in the UK but that dominance appears to be over. Tickets for the event last year sold out in under two hours even with strict registration and identity requirements to avoid scalpers. This was a stark contrast to this year when tickets went on sale on Sunday and just five thousand had sold by the end of the first hour and only 100,000 out of the 140,000 available tickets had sold by the end of the day, the Times reported.

There are many rumors as to why sales have fallen off for the venerable Glastonbury. The festival had come off a 1 year hiatus last year and perhaps fans were primed for the event. The festival was also plagued with torrential rains, mud and other, less savory deluges last year, which may have left bad memories for some fans. Glastonbury is also facing fierce competition in the increasingly-crowded summer festival market and with the steep price for festival passes, many fans will have to choose carefully which events to attend.

Other criticism has been leveled at the lineup, which features US hip-hop star Jay-Z for the headliner on Saturday night, a spot that has traditionally been held by more guitar-oriented bands like the White Stripes and Radio Head and have even lead to rumors, according to The Times, that Jay-Z might pull out of the festival. Festival organizers have vehemently denied this.

"The festival organizers heard the rumours he was considering pulling out of the festival late last week. Obviously they still hoped it could be sorted out, which they still do. But there will be people who bought tickets for the festival because they wanted to see Jay-Z," said a source quoted by The Sun.

Eavis attributes the issue to a few rough years weatherwise. "Three years of mud and despair have taken their toll," he said yesterday. "Hardly surprising is it, really?" – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers

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