Jeremy Corbyn hit back at critics of the Labour Live festival as he announced the party would hold another event next year.

The Labour Leader said his party was trying to do things differently as he defended the huge gamble of trying to stage a music and politics festival.

He said: “We’ve reached out in a way that no political party has ever done before to go out there and put on a music, poetry, discussion, conference, concert.

The festival, which was originally expecting to welcome 30,000 people to North London, had reportedly sold just 3,000 tickets with around a month to go.

Jeremy Corbyn branded the Tories "the party of the rich for the rich" (
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Dinendra Haria/WENN)

But in recent weeks ticket prices were slashed from £35 to £10 and the unions stepped in buying batches which they distributed to their members.

Last week Labour signed up chartoppers Clean Bandit to headline which gave sales a further boost.

A Labour source said more than 13,000 tickets had been sold - with more going on the door on the day itself.

But there have been reports of the party losing more than a million pounds on the event.

Corbyn t-shirts were de rigeur (
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Mr Corbyn said: “We want to show that we as a party can put on a good music event as well as all the other things that go with it and I think its going to be a great success.

“We haven’t done all the sums on it - that will come later.”

Mr Corbyn told the Daily Mirror of the importance of engaging people in politics in different ways.

He said: “We’ve got thousands of people they’re having a great time, they’re enjoying themselves, they’re chatting to each other and they’re inspired by each other.

Jeremy Corbyn drew the biggest crowd of the day (
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Getty Images Europe)

“If politics is to mean anything to the entire community people don’t all listen to Radio Four and watch newsnight. People get their political views and ideas from lots of different places. We understand that.”

Labour Party Chairman Ian Lavery told the audience at a People’s Question Time event at the festival that Labour Live would happen next year and he said “it would be twice as big”.

Bands including the Magic Numbers and Reverend and the Makers played on a main stage at White Hart Lane’s recreation ground.

While tents were packed out for discussions with speakers including Unite’s Len McCluskey, MPs Dawn Butler and Barry Gardiner and campaigners.