By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Hundreds of tickets were sold Sunday for the 2003 Tall Stacks Music, Arts and Heritage Festival on the first day of sales, but many came with a headache.

Take Tom Brown, for example.

First the 49-year-old Maineville man tried to buy tickets from home, but a computer glitch had blocked many online sales. Then he spent more than two hours in line Sunday afternoon at the Tall Stacks store in Tower Place Mall downtown.

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"It's frustrating," said Mr. Brown, who bought 12 cruise tickets. "But in the long run, it's worth it because we got what we wanted."

Tall Stacks 2003, an official part of Ohio's bicentennial celebration, is the fifth such festival since 1988. It will bring steamboats from as far away as Texas to Cincinnati, Covington and Newport for cruises, tours, races and re-enactments.

The festival, which runs Oct. 15-19, is expected to draw 650,000 people to town.

At Tower Place, people started lining up at 6 a.m. Sunday. By noon - when sales started - more than 80 people were in a line that stretched out the door and around the corner past the Banana Republic store, said Kristin Schnelle, Tall Stacks marketing manager.

By late afternoon, the computer glitch still had not been fixed and it was almost a three-hour wait to get tickets.

A handful of cruises were sold out by 4 p.m., but Ms. Schnelle did not know how many tickets had been sold. At least 300 people, many purchasing more than one ticket, went through the line, she said.

The line was cut off at 5 p.m.

Westwood resident Ellen Steele, who loves ballroom dancing, was hoping to get tickets to the big band cruise on the Spirit of Jefferson.

"These tickets are hard to get and I just love going," she said.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.tallstacks.com or call 1-866-497-TALL (8255) 9 a.m-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m- 8 p.m. Sunday.

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com