Moonfest confirms it is cancelled

The festival office for Moonfest which was due to take place at Storridge Farm, Westbury, Wiltshire from Friday 29th to Sunday 31st August has confirmed reports that the event is cancelled.

The festival lost their license for the Friday of the event after magistrates upheld the police's use for the first time of Section 160 (orders to close premises in an area experiencing disorder) of the Licensing Act 2003. The organisers say trying to host the event with a third of the festival missing became impossible.

The festival website has just been updated (here) to say:

It is with huge regret that we have to make the following announcement:

On Monday 18th August 2008 we appeared before Chippenham magistrate's court where the police successfully convinced the magistrates that the appearance of Pete Doherty at Moonfest was likely to cause public disorder. Using section 160 of the licensing act 2003, the magistrates revoked our licence for Friday 29th August. With Pete and Babyshambles being our headlining act for the weekend, this draconian action taken by the Police make it impossible to run the event at the end of August. To say we are surprised and devastated would be an understatement. The Police attended every public event licensing meeting over the last 6 months. They have always been aware that Babyshambles and Pete were appearing. The police also attended the public hearing on the 24th July when the licence was granted and made no objections; indeed they actively supported the event at the meeting. We are currently carrying out the huge task of contacting all the people involved in putting the festival together. Once we have done that we will be contacting directly all people who have purchased tickets.

We would like to extend our thanks to all the people that have been so helpful and understanding in what has become an enormous nightmare to the Moonfest team. There are too many to list individually however we would like to say a special thank you to Pete Doherty who has volunteered to put on a free performance at a private party we are looking to organise for all the people who are affected by this terrible news.

There are a couple of interesting links below which highlight the attitude of the police to what was going to be the best music event ever in Wiltshire.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7570675.stm

http://www.nme.com/news/babyshambles/39056

If you would like to contact us please in the first place send an e mail to tickets@moonfest.co.uk as the phones are currently ringing constantly due to the enormous amount of international press, TV and radio stations calling in for updates.

We thank you in anticipation for your understanding - The Moonfest Team

The festival had a line-up that included The Australian Pink Floyd, Ozric Tentacles, Zenyth, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Shakatak, Heaven 17, Go West, and Imagination. The event also sees performances from Stone Gods, Artfull Dodger, JetKing, Leafhound, Mechanism, Subsource, The Joe Public, The Fookarewees, Dandelion Killers, Blue on Black, Pendragon, Soasis, Monkey See, AFGM, The Suspicions, and Killertones.

The organisers say all ticket purchases will be refunded.

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