Last updated at 12:26, Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Thousands of tickets have been snapped up for the concert in Carlisle this summer of chart-topping 80s band Madness.

Madness

With more than four months still to go until the Nutty Boys appear in the city, organisers have revealed that 3,000 tickets have already been sold.

News that Madness were to appear as the headline act at Carlisle Racecourse’s big summer meeting on July 7 sparked a rush for tickets almost as soon as they went on sale in December.

The Stobart Summer Festival will feature a live open-air performance by the band after an evening’s racing.

Watch Madness perform Night Boat to Cairo. Article continues below...

Advance sales at this stage are well ahead of those for Jools Holland’s appearance at the event in July 2010, which attracted the biggest crowd in the racecourse’s history of nearly 11,000.

With capacity for the Madness meeting cut to 9,500 to reduce congestion, organisers are expecting a sellout well in advance.

First published at 11:27, Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk