THE final batch of tickets for this year's Latitude festival will go on sale on March 23 at 7pm, it was announced yesterday.Early birds snapped up the first batch of tickets for the popular music and arts festival at 2008 prices just after last year's event.

THE final batch of tickets for this year's Latitude festival will go on sale on March 23 at 7pm, it was announced yesterday.

Early birds snapped up the first batch of tickets for the popular music and arts festival at 2008 prices just after last year's event.

Prices for Latitude 2009, which will again be held at Henham Park near Southwold, are yet to be revealed.

The headline acts for the eco-friendly festival, which will take place on July 17, 18 and 19, will be unveiled the same day the tickets go on sale.

Now in its fourth year, Latitude is expected to draw similar numbers to last year's event, which attracted as many as 25,000 people.

Last month organisers were considering introducing a carbon-offsetting programme, with revellers donating a fee to offset the damage caused by carbon emissions.

They also offered transport secretary Geoff Hoon a lifetime ticket to Latitude, which is promoted as a green event, if he changed his mind about the third runway being built at Heathrow, and denied that Mr Hoon, who is known to have enjoyed previous Latitudes, had been banned from attending.