Tickets for this year's A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's will be allocated by public ballot. The Dean, The Reverend Dr Stephen Cherry, said:
‘Capacity restrictions mean that it will not be possible to have a congregation of the size that has become traditional at the service, which means that there are fewer tickets available. To avoid disappointing many people who may have queued from the early hours of the morning we have decided to invite members of the public to take part in a ballot. The service was originally conceived as a "gift to the City of Cambridge", and in the spirit of that traditional gift of goodwill, we will ensure that at least half of the public tickets will go to the people of Cambridge.’
For more information about joining the public ballot, see A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
First held in King's College Chapel in 1918, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was initially broadcast by the BBC ten years later in 1928. Since 1930 it has been broadcast live every year on Christmas eve, with the exception of 2020 when a pre-recorded service was broadcast. It is one of the world's longest-running annual broadcasts and now attracts many millions of listeners on BBC radio and on public radio stations across the US.
