For years getting a ticket for the Glastonbury Festival has been a test of nerve, patience and ingenuity, ensuring that only the hardiest fans trek down to Worthy Farm for the seemingly inevitable floods. But yesterday afternoon there was a rare second chance to buy tickets after slow initial sales at the weekend. More than 5,000 went in the first hour.

A combination of dire weather at recent festivals, this year’s choice of headline acts, increased competition and a complicated ticket registration process were all blamed as 40,000 of the 140,000 available tickets remained unsold when lines opened on Sunday.

Last year, when the festival was returning after a brief hiatus, it sold out in under two hours. Some 400,000 hopefuls supplied a passport photograph and contact information in advance, almost double the number that preregistered this year.

Criticism from fans has centred on the booking of the US hip-hop star Jay-Z to top the bill, with the reformed Wigan band the Verve and Kings of Leon, from Tennessee.

Many contributors to internet chat rooms felt that Jay-Z, arguably the biggest star in urban music, was the wrong choice to transfix an enormous field in Somerset in the way that Radiohead, the White Stripes and Muse have in recent years. Others, hooked in by Jay-Z’s signing, are confused because of rumours that the singer is about to pull out of the festival, which the organisers have denied.

Michael Eavis, the owner of Worthy Farm, where the festival has been held for 37 years, preferred to blame the slow sales on mudbaths at the past three festivals and early ticket releases for the Reading and T in the Park festivals. “Three years of mud and despair have taken their toll,” he said yesterday. “Hardly surprising is it, really?”

Mr Eavis added that he was unlikely to scrap the festival’s controversial preregistration scheme, introduced last year to thwart ticket touts. “It is a bit tedious but I just hate ticket touting.”

The festival this year runs over the weekend of June 27-29, with tickets priced at £164 including booking fee. More than 1,000 acts will perform. They are expected to include Pete Doherty, Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen and Massive Attack. The full lineup will be released on May 1.

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