Thousands of people who'd thought they'd managed to buy a ticket for the Reading and Leeds festivals have been told their orders have been cancelled.

Over 3000 people received confirmations for their tickets, but purchases were dealt with so quickly that it wasn't until later when tickets had sold out that they were told they had been withdrawn.

Melvin Benn, managing director Mean Fiddler who organise the Carling Weekend, said: "Cards were rejected either because their numbers were inputted incorrectly or they did not have sufficient funds. The sad thing is they got a confirmation and then relaxed and it wasn't until the next morning they were told there was a problem, by which time the weekend tickets were gone."

Mr Benn said they had records of the cancelled orders and were holding back enough coach package tickets to give people an opportunity to still go to the festival, whose headliners this year include Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins and Razorlight. These tickets are available until 7.30pm today.

Lesson for next year: don't try and buy tickets if you're skint or can't type properly.