THE number of tickets being sold for this year’s CarFest has been increased by 5,000 after an application to vary Laverstoke Park Farm’s premises licence closed with no objections.

Following a consultation with neighbours of the farm, an application to vary the premises licence was submitted to the borough council, asking to increase the capacity each day from 19,999 to 23,999.

This closed with no objections on March 24.

It means an extra 2,000 tickets can be sold for each day, plus another 1,000 camping tickets.

A statement from Brand Events, which organises the August bank holiday festival, said: “We are delighted with the outcome and are extremely grateful to the neighbours for supporting this endeavour to raise more funds for BBC Children in Need. We will ensure that all parties continue to work closely with each other in the run up to CarFest 2014.”

Jody Scheckter, owner of Laverstoke Park Farm, added: “It is wonderful to have such local support for the festival which looks like it will be even better than 2013! In keeping with Chris Evans’ original wish to have a family friendly festival, we can all feel incredibly proud to be hosting such a wonderful event here near Overton.”

The increased capacity was agreed as a final change to the licence, and no parties involved will seek to request any further variations to the capacity, frequency or duration of the licence in the future, putting paid to previous concerns that the festival could become the next Glastonbury.

The extra tickets went on sale on April 30.