Beachdown Festival 2009 Cancelled

Brighton’s Beachdown Festival which was due to take place this bank holiday weekend has been cancelled.

Fans are being told to contact the agencies from where they bought tickets, which cost almost £100, for information about refunds.

In a statement on the Beachdown Festival website, organisers said:

“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”

Speaking to the BBC, Sussex Police said the site at Devils Dyke had been closed and urged anyone with tickets to stay away.

Ch Insp Chris Ball, from Sussex Police, added: “We cannot stress more vigorously that there is nothing at the site either to see or to meet the needs of visitors.

“Anyone who does come along will be turned away by police, so we urge you not to travel.”