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Cheltenham Festival set for record breaker

11.10.10 | Graeme Neill

The Cheltenham Literature Festival looks set for a record breaking year with more than 100,000 tickets sold before the first event opened on Friday, just 10,000 tickets than were sold during the whole of the 2009 festival.

The Gloucester Echo reports thousands are showing up to the festival, which runs until Saturday, to see the likes of Peter Mandelson, Jilly Cooper, Salman Rushdie, Sebastian Faulks and Alastair Campbell.

Director Sarah Smyth said: "We have always believed it is a particularly strong programme this year and we're seeing that in the figures.

"Not only have we got world famous authors like Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie coming to talk, we also have people from popular culture like Kirstie Allsopp and Stephen Fry. It's this balance that makes it such a wonderful festival."

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