This weekend's Beachdown is cancelled

The directors of Beachdown Festival which was due to return to the outskirts of Brighton, set on the South Downs in East Sussex, this weekend from Friday 28thto Monday 31st August have announced that the event has been cancelled.

The directors have promised to do all they can to keep ticket holders informed. The festival has been dogged with problems since the start, with nearly 100 strict conditions imposed by Mid Sussex District Council in order to have the licence granted. The festival's website published the following statement shortly after midnight announcing the cancellation:

Dear All

It is with immense personal regret that the Directors of Beachdown Festival have been advised that they must announce that due to slower than forecast ticket-sales and lack of support at a critical time from our bank and certain suppliers that despite being so so close to being able to deliver Beachdown Festival we are unable to do so. Very simply we were unable to meet the demands that the current economic climate put against us and at the eleventh hour despite having most of the infrastructure in place we have been forced to cancel the event.

We wish to say at this time how desperately sorry we are to all those who have bought tickets or were participating in the event and to say that we all here are personally shattered especially after eleven months of battling against the recession to try and put this event on and coming so close. We also wish to advise everyone that we explored every possible avenue to finance the event including re-mortgaging our houses to combat the unwillingness of banks to support us.

We will do everything in our power to give the best information that we can via the web-site and via email but we ask that people understand that we will also be inundated with enquiries but we will endeavour to communicate to everyone as best we can.

We ask all ticket-holders to get information from the outlet that you purchased the ticket from in the first instance and once again we will do everything we can to get as much information as we can to everyone as quickly as we can.

Directors
Beachdown Festival

The festival was going to offer a weekend of new music with a few established bands offering indie and alternative music on one stage, and a re-creation of Brighton's club nights on another stage. The line-up included Grace Jones, Ocean Colour Scene, The Zutons, Laurent Garnier (live), Super Furry Animals, The Rakes, Saint Etienne, Grandmaster Flash, Prince Buster, The Fall, Ida Maria, and more.

For some of those expecting to attend this is a double blow if they had originally purchased tickets for Bloom Festival which was cancelled at the beginning of the month. Bloom offered no ticket refund. There was instead a ticket exchange scheme where upon presentation of a Bloom Festival ticket, ticket holders paid an extra £22.50 to upgrade to a Beachdown weekend ticket, a ticket which they may now not see a refund being offered on.

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