TECHNICAL gremlins marred the launch of this year's Kent Big Day Out campaign when the website offering free tickets to tourist attractions crashed due to high demand.

The organisers were left red-faced after the site went down within minutes of being launched on this morning.

It was supposed to allow users to apply for 18,000 tickets to 120 attractions across the county.

Sandra Matthews-Marsh, chief executive for Visit Kent which organises the Big Day Out event, said: "We are very sorry and apologised for the frustration this has caused. This is a technical issue which is going to take a little time to resolve. Access to the website was proving too difficult and rather than frustrate people further by constantly trying to reconnect we have taken the site down for a short while. We are working with our technical team to sort out the problems and we will be bringing the website back online next week.

"So, I am asking everyone to be patient and come back to www.kentbigdayout.co.uk when all the technical problems have been resolved.

"Anyone who managed to download their tickets on Friday morning can be assured that they are fully valid for the Kent Big Day Out on March 27. And those not yet successful can be reassured there are thousands of tickets still available."

People going onto the site were greeted with a message apologising and telling them it would be back online the following week, adding: "There are plenty of tickets still available." It directed them to the Visit Kent site.

In the real world, things were going a bit more according to plan. The Historic Dockyard was the venue for the launch.

A Visit Kent spokesman described it as the perfect example of a great family day out.

Kent Regional News and Media is supporting the scheme.