ORGANISERS of The Ninth Burnley Blues Festival were today toasting record breaking ticket sales.

More than 30 per cent of tickets have already been snapped up, seven weeks before the start of the Easter Bank Holiday show.

And the Burnley Mechanics box office has been receiving dozens of calls from Blues fans from as far as Saudi Arabia, Dorset, Bristol, London, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Mechanics' publicist Jacqui Livesey, said: "The fact that the Burnley Blues Festival has flourished for nine years is a great achievement in itself.

"That ticket sales are going through the roof so far in advance is a real bonus, and shows that the festival is respected right across the UK and beyond.

"Advance sales are well ahead of any previous year, and it looks like the 1997 Blues Festival is going to be one of the best attended ever."

The Burnley Council-owned venue estimates that 4,000 people will flood into the region to enjoy local facilities and hotels during the festival.

The event always provides a welcome boom for businesses and tourist attractions in Burnley, with a knock-on effect for the rest of East Lancashire.

The Ninth Burnley Blues Festival opens on Thursday, March 27, with the Big Town Playboys and Andy Fairweather Low.

Between then and the grand finale, with US blues legend Joe Louis Walker, on March 31, hundreds of artists will have performed at the Mechanics before thousands of fans.

For ticket details contact the Mechanics' on 01282 430055.

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