We are not yet out of January, but 2025 has already seen a wave of cancellations of popular festivals.
The latest casualty is Weyfest. Having run for nearly two decades, the event in Tilford was known for attracting big-name musical acts such as The Stranglers, Jools Holland, and The Lightning Seeds.
While organisers have yet to comment publicly, insiders have confirmed that the event will not take place this year.
Meanwhile, in Petersfield, the community was dealt a blow with the cancellation of its beloved spring, summer, and Christmas festivals for 2025. Organisers Steve Jacob and Ben Errey, founders of Hometown Events, made the heartbreaking announcement last week.
“It is with a heavy heart, we have decided after 13 years of building something awesome in Petersfield that our free-to-enter community festivals will sadly not be happening this year,” the organisers said.
As for many others in the industry, the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact.
“Due to be our tenth and most successful year back in 2020, the pandemic hit and knocked the world for six,” they said.
“Not only did it put a hold on all of our community events but it wiped out our actual events business overnight, as many of you will have experienced too.
“After two years of lockdown the world finally came back to life and yet running events has never been quite the same and every year the struggles continue financially, physically and mentally.”
The last-minute cancellation of Petersfield’s Christmas Festival in December was the final straw.
“After having to cancel the Christmas Festival last minute due to the storm in December, we realised just how dependent we are on unpredictable weather, and how, at a moment's notice, weeks of planning can be wiped out,” they said.
“This then combines with a huge strain put on the finances and our wellbeing yet again.”
Trends in our region are reflected nationwide, with many festivals facing similar challenges. For example, this week Cambridge Folk Festival, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious folk and roots music events, scrapped its 60th-anniversary edition in 2025.
In Liverpool, the Africa Oyé festival, which celebrates African music and culture, has also been called off this year, despite a record-breaking turnout in 2024. The organisers attributed the cancellation to rising costs and increased supplier prices, issues that are being echoed across the sector.
In fact, 2024 saw more than 50 festivals across either cancelled, postponed, or permanently closed, according to industry estimates. The financial pressures of rising costs, combined with unpredictable weather patterns and changes in audience behaviour since the pandemic, are creating an increasingly difficult environment for organisers.
John Rostron, chief executive of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), called the situation a “crisis” for the sector.
“The margins for festival promoters have been eroded to near zero since the pandemic,” he said. “Without direct government support, the UK will continue to lose successful businesses and cultural cornerstones of our communities.”
As more organisers step back from their events, the future of the UK’s festival scene remains uncertain. The cancellations of Weyfest and Petersfield’s festivals highlight the mounting financial pressures and logistical challenges facing organisers, compounded by years of uncertainty and rising costs in the live events sector.
