HAMPSHIRE'S biggest music festival has announced it will cap public ticket sales.

Organisers at Boomtown Fair are still looking to host the event at Matterley Bowl between August 12 and 16 – but with 20 per cent less public ticket holders than last year.

The overall capacity at the 2019 festival was 65,999 which includes crew members and staff. The Chronicle has contacted Boomtown asking how the reduction in tickets will impact this year's capacity.

A spokesperson for the event said: "To ensure we are able to run the festival to the levels of the quality we are known for, in a safe time frame for crew, contractors and public, we have made the decision to cap the public ticket sales. "This is currently projected at around 20 per cent reduction from the 2019 public ticket holders capacity and includes a more condensed festival layout.

"These are the resilience plans as we have them in place at this point in time."

Organisers accept that the situation coronavirus crisis could change within the coming weeks and say they are "prepared to be reactive".

"We are actually really excited about this new revised show we are working to," added the spokesperson.

"It will continue to host the jaw dropping stages we have become known for, house the epic circus shows on the main stages, have the handbuilt detailed sets with characters roaming the festival site, and we are, currently, still able to welcome all the existing headliner artists previously released for this year."

"So if this can happen, we are looking forward to it being an amazing coming together of people, from every walk of life, at the end of a very long and hard period that has affected every person in the global community."