Students furious after missing out on tickets for David Attenborough lecture

Students have been left devastated after tickets for Sir David Attenborough’s Leicester lecture were fully booked within seconds.

The promise that “from midday” had many ignoring impending deadlines with bursting bladders as they glued themselves to their seats for the 12pm ticket release.

However, heartbroken undergrads looked at their computers in disbelief when the words were replaced with: “The tickets, ticket quantity or date and time you’ve requested are no longer available” hit screens, only 10 seconds after the tickets came online.

Aside from King Richard III’s reburial last year bringing the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch to our humble city, excitement like this doesn’t come to Leicester very often – so undergrads were understandably devastated.

In his desperate bid to secure a ticket for his hero’s lecture, Leicester student Rhys said: “It’s like Glasto tickets all over again.” That it was, but with the promise of a better headliner than Kanye West.

Upset applicants for lecture tickets blamed a prioritisation of alumni over undergraduates.

In response to the uproar, a spokesperson for the University of Leicester said: “Only 0.16 per cent of alumni were allocated tickets – the majority of tickets were therefore made available to the public and guests of the University.

“Within the first five minutes of bookings going live there were 20,000 visits to the booking site, and available tickets were taken up within seconds.”

The theatre where the lecture is due to take place only has the capacity to hold 450 people, making chances of obtaining tickets small.

However the University is currently looking at the possibility of a larger venue.

The reality is, for tweeters like Omar, it’s too late now to say sorry.

But not all hope is lost – a live stream of the lecture will be available online.

Members of the public are also still able to see Sir David opening the new £1.5 million gallery extension at Attenborough Arts Centre on Lancaster Road on the 29th January.