The Glastonbury Festival 2008 was held on 27, 28 and 29 June, headlined by Kings of Leon, Jay-Z and The Verve on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively, with other notable acts including Neil Diamond, Shakin' Stevens, Levellers, and Stackridge, who opened the first festival in 1970. Continuing the procedure introduced in 2007, ticket buyers had to pre-register and submit a passport photo between 1 February and 14 March to buy tickets which went on sale at 9 am on Sunday 6 April. Following 40,000 tickets not being sold, the pre-registration process was reopened on 8 April. Several reasons have been cited for this, including the poor weather of the previous four years and the controversial choice of featuring the hip hop artist, Jay-Z, as a headlining act. A day before the festival began, Michael Eavis announced that there were still around 3,000 tickets remaining, making it possible that it would be the first festival in 15 years not to sell out in advance. It had also been announced that any remaining tickets would be sold from major branches of HMV.