A RECORD number of tickets to a major summer festival were bought by local residents - but some were left disappointed because they missed out. 

A total of 2,394 people living near Laverstoke Park Farm bought tickets to CarFest ahead of their general release, which was a 16 per cent increase on last year.

However, the organisers of the event did receive a few complaints from people unable to buy a family ticket, because they sold out.

The pre-sale is designed to guarantee that local people are able to purchase tickets for the event.

Louisa Parry, show manager for the charity festival, which raises money for BBC Children in Need, said: “It is appropriate that those who experience a level of inconvenience should be able to buy tickets and not be prevented from doing so by the large numbers of people from elsewhere who try to buy tickets. What we can't guarantee, however, is the type of ticket.”

The family tickets, which admit two paid for adults and two free children, are the most popular and make up just over 20 per cent of all the weekend tickets sold, although this is slightly higher for the resident pre-sale.

Ms Parry said: “We know that some people who had managed to buy family tickets last year did not manage to buy them this year and that they are disappointed and feel let down.”

She added that residents were advised that the tickets were 'first come, first served' and although there were more tickets available that last year, there were a record number of residents who signed up.

Ms Parry added: “Perhaps next year, we can help manage expectations better by specifying to those registered exactly which tickets are most limited and therefore most likely to sell out first, in the hope that this encourages people to buy straight away, replicating more the behaviour of our general sale.”

CarFest is unable to increase the allocation of tickets for presale, and said there were in fact individual weekend tickets that did not sell out.

Ms Parry said: “We continue to make a number of camping tickets available and yet members of the general public could argue that this unfairly takes these tickets away from those who live a distance away. In summary, we are committed to ensuring that everyone living locally will be able to buy a ticket in the presale. What we cannot offer is that everyone can bring their children for free.”

She added: “Whilst we, Children in Need and the Scheckter's are delighted that there is so much local support, we have to try to be fair to the remainder of the public who wish to attend this family event. We are very sorry that some people didn't manage to buy the ticket they wanted but remain hugely grateful to all those who support the festival which together with CarFest North, raised over £1.5m for BBC Children in Need in 2014.”