ORGANISERS of this September's Marlborough LitFest have apologised to people who not only missed out on tickets for headliner David Walliams after bookings opened this morning - but then found multiple payments had been taken from their accounts.

The tickets were being sold online for the Feastival through Pound Arts, who run the arts centre in Corsham, who have also apologised and promised everyone affected will get a full refund.

The two David Walliams events sold out within hours, and a waiting list has now been set up for people who missed out in case any lucky buyers later find they are unable to make the date.

The LitFest committee said: "Marlborough LitFest would like to apologise to anyone who experienced difficulties in buying tickets for the David Walliams talks today, especially those people who had issues with online booking transactions as a result of the huge demand. We anticipated major interest in him coming to LitFest which is why we asked him (and he kindly accepted) to do an extra talk for us, in Memorial Hall in Marlborough College, which is the biggest venue in the town.

"We deliberately spread an allocation of tickets for sale both in The White Horse Bookshop and through our online booking system so that everybody would get a fair chance of obtaining tickets but the demand was overwhelming. We share everyone’s disappointment if they were unable to get tickets.

"Please be assured that we will work with The Pound Arts – with whom we have successfully worked with for the past nine years of LitFest – to refund any money lost through online transactions."

The Pound Arts Trust also issued a statement apologising, saying: "We know that a number of customers have experienced problems when booking online.

"We apologise for the inconvenience caused and have been in contact with our ticketing and card processing operators for The Pound Arts Trust Limited, both of whom are looking into this matter for us. We have been advised that if you did not receive a confirmation email on completion of the transaction then unfortunately you have been unsuccessful in getting tickets for these events. "Your bank account may currently show this money as ringfenced; it should be released back into your account within 24 hours of the transaction. If this is not the case after 24 hours we would urge you to contact your bank.

"If you have been affected by this problem, please email The Pound’s Box Office at box.office@poundarts.org.uk with details including your name, telephone number, and transaction amount for us to check against.

"We are trying to keep the phone lines clear so that customers can still book for all the other amazing events at this year’s Marlborough Literature Festival. At the present time no other events have sold out.

"Waiting lists for both David Walliams events have been set up. Please email box.office@poundarts.org.uk (with your full name, contact telephone number and number of tickets required and for which time event) if you would like to be added to the waiting list for either of the David Walliams events."