Brighton Festival saw record-breaking sales on Friday as tickets became available for the general public.

There were queues outside the box office in New Road as people snapped up tickets for this year’s May event.

Online sales were also busy, with 50% of the festival’s bookings taking place through its website.

With two hours still left to go last night, a record-breaking 14,000 tickets - £70,000 worth - had already been sold.

This is in addition to the more than £40,000 worth of tickets which were sold to Brighton Dome and Festival members on the first day sales opened to them.

Bosses said they were thrilled with the excitement about the festival, which has Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as its guest director.

To buy Brighton Festival tickets call 01273 709709 or book online at www.brightonfestival.org.