Looe Live! festival cancelled due to increased costs

Organisers said cancelling the festival in Looe was the "necessary and responsible action to take"

Cornwall's Looe Live! music and arts festival has been cancelled because of costs.

Event commercial organiser South West Bars and Events said the festival was not financially viable and there was "no alternative but to cancel".

It said that ticket holders would receive "a full refund".

The managing charity, Looe Saves the Day, said it was "very disappointed" at the news and was looking at options for an event in 2023.

'Extremely tough call'

South West Bars and Events said organisers were announcing "with heavy hearts that the festival is cancelled and won't be going ahead as planned from the 16-18 September 2022".

It said that "having taken every effort to explore all the options, the financials dictate that the extremely tough call to cancel is both the necessary and responsible action to take".

It said: "The impact of the cost-of-living crisis, significantly increased production and infrastructure costs, lack of confidence in ticketed events and a very competitive market are just some of the main factors that compounded the very difficult decision."

It said its event team's priority was ensuring ticket holders "from 2022 and those who rolled over festival tickets from 2020 and 2021, receive a full refund".

Trustees of Looe Saves the Day said they were "very disappointed at the sad news" and it also meant it had been "left with no choice" but to cancel community activities.  

"None of the charity's finances were affected by this decision and we will be looking at options for staging an event next year," it added.

Headliners were due to be Reef, former Kasabian singer Tom Meighan and the Lightning Seeds.

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