TOUTS are cashing in on Britain's biggest free ticketed live music event to be held in Glasgow by ­selling passes for up to £250 for just one day of the festival.

The resellers are taking to online websites such as Gumtree and eBay to take advantage of music lovers' hunger for the BBC Radio 1 Big Weekend on Glasgow Green which features a who's who of bands and artists including One Direction, Coldplay and Katy Perry.

Some 50,000 fans are expected to take in the live performances on Saturday and Sunday. The BBC has previously called on those running major auction websites and sales outlets to have posts offering tickets for sale or trade removed.

But it has not stopped the touts. It has emerged tickets are appearing across selling sites for up to £500 a pair for a single day.

The only cost for the tickets was the price of a booking fee which comes in at £5 for each pair of tickets.

The event is set to provide a huge boost to Glasgow's profile before the Commonwealth Games are held in the city. It is also due to host the MTV Europe Music Awards for the first time in November, at the SSE Hydro.

Nearly three in four of tickets were reserved for those living within the Glasgow City Council area while 25% were for those resident in the rest of Scotland and the remaining 5% were available to the rest of the UK.

All 50,000 tickets for Radio 1's Big Weekend in Glasgow Green were given away earlier this month in 35 minutes.

However, on an online site, a pair of tickets offered for Saturday's show, which features Coldplay and One Direction, were offered for £500 by one seller from Fort William.

A Rutherglen seller named Heather was seeking £600 for two pairs of tickets for the Saturday show but said: "Only accepting reasonable offers! No time wasters." One seller from Heywood, Greater Manchester was selling a pair of Saturday passes for £210, plus £3 postage. Fans had already registered 32 bids for them.

The seller showed the tickets but used paper towels to cover up the serial number so they could not be traced.

Another in Motherwell was selling a single ticket for Sunday for £78, where fans can see Katy Perry, Kings of Leon and Paolo Nutini. They also covered up their serial number.

Yet another seller from Crawley is asking for £192 plus postage of £3 for two Sunday tickets.

A BBC spokesman said: "Tickets for BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend in Glasgow are free and we work with those running major auction websites and sales outlets to have posts offering tickets for sale or trade removed.

"Those offering tickets for sale are breaking the terms and conditions they agreed to during the booking process and we reserve the right to cancel them."

Radio 1's Big Weekend, now in its 11th year, is visiting Glasgow to celebrate the city's hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is being produced in partnership with the Glasgow City Marketing Bureau.

Also confirmed for the two-day Big Weekend are Kings of Leon, who headlined a 35,000-capacity show at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow last summer, along with Kasabian, Tinie Tempah, Lily Allen, Bastille, Ed Sheeran, Example, Jake Bugg, John Newman, Twin Atlantic and Chvrches.

Some 14,0000 free tickets were also available for a dance music spectacular planned for George Square headlined by superstar DJ Tiesto to get the weekend started on Friday.