Eavis selling Glastonbury tickets door-to-door

SOMERSET, ENGLAND -- With just days to go until the 2008 Glastonbury festival, organiser Michael Eavis has resorted to unconventional tactics to offload the final tickets.

After the event failed to sell out for the first time in years, the baldy farmer will be spending this weekend travelling Great Britain in his Land Rover, knocking on people's doors and attempting to flog the tickets in person.

"I was quite surprised when Michael turned up at my house trying to sell my husband and I tickets for Glastonbury," said one 47-year-old Sheffield housewife. "I said I was getting a bit old for that kind of thing, and besides, it clashes with a friend's wedding."

But take heed, Britons: Eavis is not a man who readily takes no for an answer. "He kept banging on about the favourable weather forecasts, and how Jay-Z was going to confound the naysayers," revealed one would-be punter in Oban, Scotland. "I thought he'd never leave. He literally had his foot in the door at one point."

This latest move follows earlier attempts to sell the residual tickets, including making them available over the counter in music stores and abandoning the pre-registration process.

Speaking to Pop 24 on his mobile from the Outer Hebrides, Eavis yesterday said: "We've been hearing that a lot of people would love to come to the festival, but don't have internet access or live near a HMV. Or have phones: trendy London media types may be surprised to learn a lot of people in this country still aren't on the phone.

"So I've gone back to basics, selling tickets door-to-door, and the response has been largely positive, with a very small number of threats to call the police. We're confident the festival will sell out and be one of our best ever. Also it will not rain all weekend, and everyone will get laid.

"Actually, you can quote me on that: if you come to the 2008 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Arts, you will definitely get laid."

From today, a limited number of tickets are also available through larger branches of Gregg's the bakers.