Royal Money Milking: Queen Elizabeth sells 25,000 Tickets to Her 90th Birthday Guests

The 90-minute spectacular to be held over four evenings next May will celebrate the life of Britain's longest-serving monarch.

Tickets for the Queen's 90th birthday celebration next year have sold out just hours after being offered to the public.

Organisers had expected the 25,000 places on offer for the extravaganza being staged from 12-15 May in Home Park, Windsor Castle, to go quickly.

The event itself will be a 90-minute spectacular celebrating the life of Her Majesty with members of the royal family in attendance on each day and the Queen herself going to the last performance on Sunday, 15 May.

The celebration on each evening will include 900 horses and more than 1,500 participants from the UK and elsewhere covering the major events of the Queen's 90 years.

Tickets prices were between £55 and £195 a seat, with the most expensive seats being near the Royal Enclosure and including entrance to a hospitality suite.

Any surplus money raised will go to charity.

Those who have failed to buy a ticket will still get the chance to have a free one in a ballot to be held early next year for tickets to a pre-performance party on the final night. 

That party will be held in The Long Walk, the imposing road that leads up to the castle itself, and the lucky winners will get the chance to see red-carpet arrivals and watch the final performance on giant screens.

The Queen will be 90 on 21 April and her birthday will be marked throughout the country in a number of different ways.

National commemorations will centre on her official birthday weekend in June - the month she was crowned - with a huge street party in the Mall, a service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral and the traditional Trooping the Colour ceremony.

Simon Brooks-Ward, producer and director, said: "We've been working hard to make this a most unique birthday celebration.

"We're especially delighted with our plans to offer an extra 5,000 people the chance to be part of the celebrations through our balloted system for tickets on The Long Walk. This will take place in the New Year."

The Queen, meanwhile, has attended a service at Westminster Abbey to mark the Inauguration of the Tenth General Synod of the Church of England.

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