This is a petition to Festival Republic - organisers of the Leeds and Reading Festivals - to release more early entry tickets for access to the campsite on Wednesday the 20th August. We want more early entry tickets to be available for the following reasons:

a) In order to combat ticket touts who have purchased more early entry tickets than necessary with the view to make a profit (EE tickets are approximately 100 for 2 on Ebay.co.uk, when the actual cost for this should be 20). This kind of selfish behaviour is disgusting and we are sure that Festival Republic frowns on it too.

b) Many long-time festival goers feel they weren't given any notice whatsoever of the 'limited' number of EE tickets this year and therefore did not make arrangements to buy them so early on (5 months before the festival). Going on past performance of ticket sales it was presumed by many that EE tickets would not sell out as there would be as many available as weekend tickets. If you had a weekend ticket, you could get early entry - simple. With sufficient notice we would have purchased the required tickets a.s.a.p.

c) It will give everyone a fair chance to find suitable camping pitches and avoid a lot of aggrevation. From past experience I can personally say that the situation on the Thursday is pitiful for anyone unfortunate to arrive on that day. There is hardly any space left to pitch a camping space for groups of friends of 6 or more. In addition to this, what little space there is left is covered in litter, food, and other obnoxious materials. Add to this the fact that people without EE tickets can access the campsite at midnight on the Wednesday and this makes the situation much much worse. Please try to imagine how difficult it is going to be pitching a tent in the dark, onto a floor covered in litter - some of which could be harmful (eg broken glass, empty tin/aluminium cans, raw meat).

We therefore appeal to your better nature to do the best that you can to release more early entry tickets and help alleviate these issues.