Music festival axed as cost of living crisis hits ticket sales

REYT FEST – which was to have been held at Upper Whiston Farm in Rotherham on Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27 – will now not go ahead.

The organisers had been ecstatic to have secured 90s Britpop band Sleeper as the Saturday night headliner.

But organiser Jon Ashton announced on Facebook on Tuesday: “We have had to make the heartbreaking decision to not go ahead with the REYT FEST event this June.

“This is due primarily to poor ticket sales which we can only attribute to the cost of living crisis.

“We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the festival, from the bands, vendors, stakeholders, suppliers and all other interested parties.

“We’d also like to thank you, our followers, liking and sharing our posts really built our fanbase, but especially to those of you who purchased tickets.

“Rest assured your ticket money will be refunded and please don’t get disheartened by this news, keep on booking live events whether it’s grassroots music in a local bar to big band stadium events or something completely different such as theatres, cinema, sports, etc, if people don’t buy tickets, they will disappear.

“We had a dream that unfortunately we can’t see it through to fruition on this occasion, but we’ve learnt so much and we don’t want to throw all that knowledge and experience away, so when the time is right – watch this space!!”

Speaking to the Advertiser, Mr Ashton said: “With escalating bills coming in, we were just too low on ticket sales and had to make the tough decision to pull the plug before things got out of hand and we racked up a lot of debt.”