My Kent Big Weekend free tickets go live - but no need to rush

The website for Kent and Medway people to sign up for My Kent Big Weekend will be fully live with all free tickets available from Monday, January 24, but there is no need to rush.

The event organisers at Visit Kent are reassuring residents that they have plenty of time to choose from the 13,000 tickets available to discover more than 100 of the county's top attractions ranging from hidden gems to internationally renowned cathedrals and castles.

The website at www.mykentbigweekend.co.uk will be live for more than three weeks from Monday and visitors will be able to register an interest in the attractions they would like to visit.

Once the website closes at midnight on Thursday, February 17, tickets will be allocated in readiness for the My Kent Big Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27.

The My Kent Weekend has grown out of the Kent Big Day Out, which was first launched by Visit Kent, the county's tourism champions, five years ago.

The aim is to raise awareness of all the attractions and destinations across the county that welcome 44million visitors every year contributing more than £2.5 billion to the local economy.

Sandra Matthews-Marsh, chief executive at Visit Kent, said: "We are now ready to have a whole weekend dedicated to celebrating our world-class tourism, leisure and hospitality businesses. Two days will enable even more people to take advantage of the free tickets and explore the many new and established attractions on their doorstep.

"Last year we did experience IT problems with so many people trying to log on to our website at the same time. So this year Visit Kent is following in the successful footsteps of such popular ticket events as Strictly Come Dancing and Wimbledon

"We are giving people more time to look through all the attractions and destinations welcoming My Kent Big Weekend visitors. Once ticket registration has finished, we will hold a ballot and people will only be allocated tickets for attractions they have chosen for the day they have selected."

Two free My Kent Big Weekend tickets are available per Kent household and anyone without access to the internet can register for tickets at their local visitor information centre.

Attractions taking part in the My Kent Big Weekend 2011 include historic houses, castles, gardens, steam trains, museums, theatres, river cruises, vineyards, wildlife parks, outdoor experiences and golf centres.

For full details of all destinations offering My Kent Big Weekend tickets, and to register the attractions you would like to visit, go to www.mykentbigweekend.co.uk