Tickets for Princes' Diana tribute concert 'sold out in 30 minutes'

Tickets for Prince William and Prince Harry's "Concert for Diana" sold out today half-an-hour after going on sale.

But the official website concertfordiana.com posted a message saying more would be released in the New Year.

The £45 tickets for the moving tribute, expected to feature some of the biggest names in pop, were up for grabs from 9am.

The online message read: "For now, tickets have sold out. More Tickets will be released in the new year, keep checking back."

One 24dash reader who tried to buy tickets when they went on sale at 9am, claims there are 'hundreds' already on sale on eBay.

Jeremy Asquith, from Chesterfield, said: "I logged on at 9am, waited 15 minutes in the queue to be told there were no tickets left.

"My wife would have loved to go. I hope the people who make profit from a charity can live with themselves."

Callers trying to buy tickets via the Ticketmaster telephone hotline received a recorded message saying there were no more left.

The concert is taking place on July 1 next year, which would have been the Princess's 46th birthday.

More than 60,000 people will gather at the new £757 million Wembley Stadium for the celebration of her life.

William and Harry announced their plans to mark the 10th anniversary of Diana's death yesterday.

The line-up, which has not been revealed in full, so far includes Sir Elton John, Diana's favourite band Duran Duran, Joss Stone and hip hop artist Pharrell Williams.

The Princes will also gather to remember the Princess at a memorial service on August 31 - the exact day she died in a car crash in Paris a decade ago.

Both events are expected to be televised, with thousands watching the high-profile commemorations.

William said he wanted the pop concert to be "the best birthday present" his mother ever had.

He said: "We wanted to have this big concert full of energy, full of the sort of fun and happiness which I know she would have wanted."

Proceeds from the Live Aid-style event will go to charity, including some of the causes closest to the late Princess's heart.

The tribute announcement came just two days ahead of the publication of the Metropolitan Police investigation into Diana's death.

The Princes will be hoping that Lord Stevens' findings bring an end to the persistent conspiracy theories surrounding the crash.

William was 15 and Harry only 12 when Diana was killed alongside lover Dodi Fayed in 1997.

The nation was moved by the sight of the Princess's sons walking stoically behind her coffin on the day of her funeral as it proceeded slowly through the streets to Westminster Abbey.

The second and third in line to the throne have invited their stepmother the Duchess of Cornwall to the August memorial service in London.

Camilla, who was vilified over her affair with the Prince of Wales, will gather alongside Charles, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to remember the Princess.

Diana's brother Earl Spencer, who criticised the Royal Family at her funeral, will also be there, with his sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes.

The Prince and the Duchess are not expected to attend the concert.

Harry said as he announced the details of the memorial service: "The service is going to include both sides of the family, our mother's side and our father's side - everyone getting together."

The venue for the service has yet to be decided, but it is thought it could be held at St James's Palace's Chapel Royal, where Diana's body lay before her funeral.

Money raised will help Harry's charity for Aids orphans, Sentebale, and the homelessness charity Centrepoint, of which William is patron.

It will also go to The Diana Memorial Fund, which was set up in her memory, and five charities of which she was patron at the time of her death - The Royal Marsden Hospital, The National Aids Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital, The Leprosy Mission, and The English National Ballet.

Copyright Press Association and 24dash.com 2006.