Gary Barlow’s Thetford Forest concert has sold out after fans snap up tickets

Tickets went on sale for Gary Barlow's Thetford Forest concert at 10am today (October 20) and instantly the Forestry Commission website said there was an hour's wait to book. Photo: Archant (Image: Emma Knights)

The Rule the World hitmaker will be heading to Suffolk without his Take That bandmates on Friday, June 8 as part of a nationwide solo tour.

It is understood there were about 9,000 tickets available for the Thetford Forest concert, part of the Forest Live summer programme which also includes a Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott concert on Saturday, June 9.

Tickets went on sale today at 10am - and instantly the Foresty Commission website was informing fans that there was an estimated wait time of about an hour.

A Forestry Commission spokesman said: 'Tickets went on sale this morning for Forest Live dates next summer by Gary Barlow and Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott. Unfortunately due to a technical issue with an external ticketing software platform the system stalled. Additionally due to an unprecedented demand for tickets phone lines were also down for a while. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.'

Tickets were also being sold on the Ticketmaster website which instantly said there were no tickets available, and the Gigs and Tours website was the first to say its ticket allocation was sold out.

Twitter has been awash with comments from fans saying they had queued online for a couple of hours to get tickets.

Many were delighted that their patience had paid off.

@elsbrowne tweeted: 'After 3 hrs and 15mins in a queue I finally got tickets for @GaryBarlow at Thetford!! So excited. #dedicationorwhat'

@Misscrick82 tweeted: 'Well after 4 hours of continual queuing I managed to get tickets for @GaryBarlow at Thetford Forest. Bring on the summer.'

@shazbabe35: 'Got my tickets for Thetford forest, amazing outside venue @GaryBarlow.'

While some people were unfortunately not so lucky.

@mahoosivehead tweeted: '@GaryBarlow missed out on Thetford so I'm going to see the band when it comes to Norwich!! Feel free to show up.'

News of Gary Barlow's tour comes after Take That made their first-ever visit to Norwich earlier this summer, entertaining more than 50,000 fans when they played two dates of their Wonderland tour at Carrow Road in June.

The Gary Barlow In Concert 2018 tour will see the star perform smaller solo concerts at 24 venues across the UK, and the Thetford Forest gig will be the penultimate date of the tour which will kick off on April 16 at Edinburgh Playhouse and finish on June 9 at Delamere Forest in Cheshire.

Both the Thetford Forest and Delamere Forest dates are part of Forest Live summer concerts organised by the Forestry Commission.

'I'm really looking forward to these gigs. I've never played Forest Live before so I hope to see you there,' said Gary Barlow, who last toured as a solo artist in 2014 and whose last solo record was Since I Saw You Last.

Together with his Take That bandmates, the singer-songwriter has had a string of hit songs including Rule The World, Relight My Fire, Greatest Day, Pray, Back For Good and Never Forget. The band has won eight Brit awards, sold more than 45 million records and more than eight million concert tickets.

Outside of Take That, he has co-written and produced music for artists including Dame Shirley Bassey and Sir Elton John, and has also turned his attention to the world of theatre, composing the score for Broadway hit Finding Neverland and working alongside screenwriter Tim Firth to write the music and lyrics for musical The Girls.

Take That are also co-producers of new musical The Band which features the songs of Take That and is coming to Norwich Theatre Royal in February 2018.

Gary Barlow plus guests will be performing at Thetford Forest on Friday, June 8. For more information, visit www.forestry.gov.uk/music