People attempting to buy tickets for a popular town regatta ran into trouble after the website experienced technical difficulties.

Tickets for the Marlow Town Regatta and Festival were set to go on sale for subscribers – those who had previously bought tickets – on March 22 while the general public were told they could get their hands on them the following day – but technical issues forced organisers to delay sales until the following week.

Then, due to “high demand” the servers for the website “fell over” on March 28, with organisers announcing they were going to halt sales until they had bought larger servers.

Subscribers were finally able to buy tickets on March 29, with the general public being given access on Good Friday.

But despite the technical troubles, spokesman Chris Hoyle said first-day sales were the best they had been for the past five to six years.

He said: “We had a bit of a technical glitch but we are now up and running.

“We are quite excited about it – it’s looking brilliant.”

The popular annual event sees crowds of thousands flock to the banks of the River Thames each year for one of the busiest weekends in the town’s history.

The 163-year-old rowing event has gone from strength-to-strength since the reformed committee came together 18 years ago to create the Marlow Town Regatta and Festival, after the original Marlow Regatta moved to Dorney Lake.

And the end-of-festival concert, which usually takes place on the Sunday evening, will entertain crowds on the Saturday instead to give more people a chance to enjoy the music, with alternative rock band Toploader headlining.

Adaptive rowing and the re-introduction of the grandstand are also new for 2018.

Visit www.marlowtownregatta.org.