Sundown Festival will not return in 2025: “It’s been an unforgettable journey”

nme.com:

A post shared by Sundown Festival (@sundownuk)“If you’ve already purchased tickets for 2025, refunds will be processed automatically through See Tickets.

Keep the party spirit alive and keep supporting festivals.”The 2024 edition of Sundown ran from August 30 to September 1 and featured performances from D-Block Europe, Tom Grennan, Mahalia, Kenya Grace and Flo.The news arrives on the same day that the Kent-based Black Deer Festival also announced that they were postponing their 2025 event, citing “financial and operational” pressures.

They have said they intend to return in 2026, however.The pair of stories come in the light of a report that as many as 72 UK festivals were cancelled or postponed in 2024, doubling the number from the previous year.The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) added that including the 96 events that were lost during the COVID pandemic, it is a total of 204 festivals that have now disappeared since 2019.By March this year, 21 UK festivals had already been cancelled, postponed or scrapped, with AIF CEO John Rostron calling 2024 a “devastating period” for festival organisers in the UK. “The festival sector generates significant revenue in and around local economies as well as to the Treasury every year,” he said.