An aerial shot of the crowd at the Apollo stage at Knebworth during the 2011 Sonisphere Festival

TICKETS for the 2012 Sonisphere Festival headlined by Queen at Knebworth Park go on sale this Thursday.

Sonisphere Festival 2012

Music legends Queen with Adam Lambert and American rock heavyweights Kiss and Faith No More will exclusively headline the international touring festival, which returns to the Hertfordshire stately home from Friday, July 6 to Sunday, July 8.

The general public will be able to buy tickets for the three-day rock and metal event from 9am GMT on Thursday, February 23.

They are on sale online from www.sonisphere.co.uk – click on the Sonisphere link above right – or by calling 0844 871 8803.

A weekend ticket costs £145, plus booking fees, while a three-day camping pass is priced at £170.

Tim Minchin

A four-day camping ticket for the UK leg of Sonisphere is £180.

Rock Royalty and day VIP packages are also available.

There will also be a very limited number of day tickets available for £75 – with tickets for Queen’s historic performance expected to sell out quickly.

Kiss top the bill on the opening Friday night, with Aussie rock exports Wolfmother and Within Temptation also playing, plus special guests.

Evanescence

Queen return to Knebworth on Saturday, July 7 with glam-rockers The Darkness, Evanescence and musician/comedian Tim Minchin also on the main two stages.

FNM will headline the Apollo arena on the closing Sunday, with support over the day from alt-rock icons Incubus, reformed Swedish hardcore pioneers Refused, controversial shock rocker Marilyn Manson and heavy metallers Mastodon, who will play recent album The Hunter in its entirety.

To help spread the cost of buying festival tickets, customers can pay a non-refundable deposit of £50 to secure their weekend tickets and then pay off the balance any time before May 1.

Festival-goers who snap up weekend tickets for Knebworth early can also go to Sonisphere in Spain.

Queen guitarist Brian May and Adam Lambert perform on stage during the MTV Europe Music Awards 2011 live show at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland [Photo by Getty Images]

Organisers of the rock festival are offering a limited number of tickets to Sonisphere Madrid, which takes place from May 25-26.

The Spanish leg of the international touring festival is headlined by thrash metal giants Metallica, who will play their seminal Black album in full.

Also on the Madrid bill are Slayer, Children of Bodom, Kyuss Lives and reformed Seattle grunge legends Soundgarden.

* See this week’s Welwyn Hatfield Times, out tomorrow (Wednesday), for more Sonisphere Festival news.

Mastodon [Picture: Erdal Mahir Curan]

Keep checking the WHT website at www.whtimes24.co.uk for all the latest Sonisphere Festival line-up announcements.