Peter Kay: Queues of over 100,000 to buy tickets for much loved comedian's surprise tour

Saturday’s general sale of the arena tour has seen queues of over 90,000 online for his dates at Leeds’ First Direct Arena.

The Bolton comedian – best known for Phoenix Nights and Car Share – announced the tour last week, following the shock cancellation of a previously planned tour in 2017.

Celebrities including TV journalists Dan Walker and Victoria Derbyshire were among those who shared their frustration at not being able to acquire tickets.

Mr Kay will play five nights at Leeds in 2023 and 2024, along with six dates at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield.

On one resale website, tickets were available for the Leeds dates at prices of up to £551.

As tickets went on sale on Saturday morning, Ticketmaster tweeted: “As expected, Peter Kay is super popular this morning.

“To make it as fair as possible, we have put everyone in a queue. Be patient and don’t refresh or you’ll lose your place.”

The rush to secure tickets also prompted the hashtags #PeterKayTour and #Ticketmaster to begin trending on Twitter.

As tickets went on sale, Kay announced he had added more dates to the tour, including two nights to his London residency at the O2 Arena.

He is the first artist in the world to perform a monthly residency at the venue.

Customers of O2, Virgin Media and Three were offered access to presale tickets two days earlier, but also faced huge demand, with some services crashing.

O2 and Virgin said it was “by far the highest demand we’ve ever seen for priority tickets in 15 years”.

Kay, from Bolton, has been largely out of the spotlight in recent years.

He cancelled his last tour in December 2017, citing “unforeseen family circumstances”.

Kay returned to the stage in August 2021 for two special charity events to raise money for Laura Nuttall, a then 20-year-old with an aggressive type of brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme.

There was also a brief return in January 2021 when he appeared on BBC Radio 2 to chat to Cat Deeley – who was filling in after Graham Norton left the station – about his love of music, mixtapes and the musical Mamma Mia.

He also made a surprise appearance at a charity screening of his series Car Share in 2018.

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