News

The Kent Big Day Out is back on track with the website www.kentbigdayout.co.uk  going live at 11am on Friday, March 5.

The website, offering more than 18,000 free tickets to 120 of the county’s top attractions for the Kent Big Day Out on Saturday, March 27, was originally launched on Friday last week.

But its high-capacity server was overwhelmed by the number of people trying to log on in the first 90 minutes of the website going online.

Now a Canterbury-based IT company, Think Hosting, is supporting the website with a server five times the capacity of the original.

Sandra Matthews-Marsh, chief executive of Visit Kent, and Anthony Morse, marketing manager at The Historic Dockyard Chatham, launch the Kent Big Day Out promotion

"We were literally overwhelmed by the enthusiasm for the Kent Big Day Out this year," said Sandra Matthews-Marsh, chief executive at Visit Kent, which organises the event as part of its Celebrating Kent campaign.

"Traffic to the website was up 120 per cent on last year’s launch within minutes of the site going live. People were being frustrated by the time it was taking them to access the site and download their free tickets.

"Thanks to the IT team at Holiday Extras, of Hythe, who gave us invaluable advice, and Think Hosting we should now have plenty of capacity."

Additional free tickets will be released on to the website during the run-up to the Kent Big Day Out.

Kent residents without access to the internet can book their Big Day Out tickets at local visitor information centres across the county.

This is the fourth Kent Big Day Out staged by Visit Kent enabling Kent residents to enjoy the many attractions and destinations that entertain 45 million visitors and contribute more than £2.5 billion to the local economy every year.

All vouchers downloaded from the Kent Big Day Out website before it was taken offline on Friday are valid and should be presented as usual at the appropriate attraction.

© Hawkinge Gazette and Channel Coast News 2010