**Pop star Michael Jackson’s family is to hold a “private function” at a Los Angeles cemetery on Tuesday, the BBC has learned.**Police confirmed the event would be taking place at the Forest Lawn Cemetery, but it has not been confirmed if the singer would be buried there.
A memorial service for the singer is due to take place a few hours later.
A total of 8,750 fans were chosen at random to receive tickets to attend the ceremony at the Staples Center.
More than 1.6 million people applied for one of the 11,000 passes issued for the event, with an additional 6,500 issued for a screening at the nearby Nokia Theatre.
Fans have begun collecting the tickets and wristbands they need to enter the memorial from the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Deka Montanya of San Francisco, one of the fans to win a ticket, said: “I’m in shock that it’s happened. It’s surreal.”
Stanford University student Dave Gobaud did not believe the e-mail telling him he was a winner was genuine at first.
“It’s Michael Jackson, one of the greatest musical stars of all time,” he said.
‘Stay at home’
City officials are preparing for massive crowds and have urged people to stay at home and watch the memorial on TV amid estimates up to 700,000 people may flood the area trying to reach the arena.
Streets around the Staples Centre are being closed off, and Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell warned ticketless fans they would be “standing in the hot sun on a city street with a lot of other people… but not within eyeshot of Staples”.
Meanwhile, a judge has said that Michael Jackson’s long-time lawyer and a family friend should take over the singer’s estate.
Jackson had put forward John Branca and music executive John McClain as executors in his will, drawn up in 2002.
The singer’s mother, Katherine Jackson, had applied to oversee her son’s estate before the will surfaced naming Branca and McClain.