TICKETS are flying out so fast for a four-day summer comedy festival in Wollaston that organisers have been forced to draft in a bigger marquee.

Demand has quickly outstripped supply for Fitz Fest, which will run from June 7 to 10 at Katie Fitzgerald's, featuring 13 professional acts.

The shows will now take place in a special marquee, which will be erected on the pub's car park - almost doubling the capacity for every night.

Award-winning comic Paul Sinha, who is best known outside of stand-up as The Sinnerman on ITV teatime quiz show The Chase, is proving especially popular headlining the opening night.

Dudley comic Wayne Beese, who will be compering the shows, said: "The response since we put tickets on sale for Fitz Fest just under a month ago has been unbelievable.

"If we'd been putting it on in the regular marquee, we would be in the position where we'd be putting the 'sold out' signs up for Paul Sinha already.

"We want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to see top-class live comedy on their doorsteps, so we've decided to invest a bit of cash to increase the capacity for the shows.

"We just need people to keep supporting us now and keep buying tickets - it would be amazing to fill this bigger marquee for all four nights in our first ever festival."

Observational comic Seann Walsh (pictured below), who has appeared on the likes of Live At The Apollo, Mock The Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, will top the bill on the closing night on June 10.

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In between, the two weekend headline slots will be filled by Barbara Nice, the housewife character creation of Phoenix Nights star Janice Connolly, and popular Black Country comic Jonny Cole.

They will headline nights on June 8 and 9 respectively.

Tickets for Fitz Fest cost £15 per show, plus booking fees but there are two special offers for die-hard comedy fans looking to make a weekend of it.

Those booking for two of the four shows will get them for £25 - £12.50 a ticket – plus booking fees, while fans booking for all four can snap them up for £40 plus the fees.

“Obviously once the first show sells out - and we don't think that will be long the way tickets for Paul Sinha are going - we won’t be able to offer that deal any more, so if people want to see all four they should snap those up while they can.”

Organisers are on the lookout for sponsors for the festival, with free tickets to the shows on offer as part of competitive packages.

Interested businesses should email wpbeese@hotmail.com.

For more information about the shows, or to book tickets, visit www.skiddle.com/e/13150821.