Vintage festival cancelled due to 'rising costs'

The festival was co-founded by fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, who comes from Morecambe

This year's Morecambe vintage festival has been cancelled due to "rising costs", it has been announced.

Organisers of the event, which has been running for 11 years, said the 2025 edition of Vintage by the Sea had become "unsustainable" due to "pressure to raise the funds needed to match rising costs".

The free and not-for-profit annual event, which was co-created by fashion designer Wayne Hemingway, has reportedly attracted more than 40,000 visitors to the Lancashire seaside resort each year.

"We hope this is not the end of the festival forever and that the right levels of resources and funding can be secured in the future," organisers added.

Fashion designer Wayne Hemingway has previously spoken of his pride at being involved with the festival in his hometown

They said the event had been set up by Deco Publique and Hemingway Design to "celebrate culture, creativity, fashion and design" while also generating more than £17m for the local economy.

Thanking everyone who had ever supported the festival, the organisers said it would return "if and when the time is right".

They explained that the festival's return following the Covid-19 pandemic "highlighted the extent of cost increases and the infrastructure needs of organising an event of this scale".

The event was "an incredible success story for Morecambe" and had been the setting for "countless memorable moments from marriage proposals to visitors choosing to relocate to Morecambe", they added.