The 2024 edition of Nottingham's Splendour festival has been cancelled because Nottingham City Council, which operates Wollaton Park, where the event is staged, took too long to complete a tendering process.
The MD of promoter DHP, George Akins, tells the BBC: "We have tried hard to make Splendour work in 2024, but the delays caused by the tendering process have meant this just hasn't been possible. It has been a hugely frustrating time for us".
Akins adds that he warned the council that any delays in the tendering process could impact on the feasibility of being able to stage a 2024 edition, stating: "2023's headliners were contracted more than a year in advance and everyone was aware of this".
DHP has promoted the event in Wollaton Park since 2008, working with Nottingham City Council. However, last year it was told by the council that it would need to go through a tendering process in order to secure the rights to continue staging a festival in the park.
The council explained that this was a requirement under its new commercial strategy. Going through such a process, it added, would "protect the authority legally [and] financially, and ensure the festival was achieving best value for the council and the residents of Nottingham".
Nottingham City Council has faced a number of challenges in the last year, resulting in it issuing a 'section 114 notice' last November, which basically constituted the local authority declaring itself bankrupt. While this certainly had a knock on effect, Akins points out that some of the delays in the tendering process pre-date the issuing of that notice.
Plus, he says, "Splendour is a significant income generator, not a cost, for the council. We would like to take this opportunity to say how sad we are for all the local businesses, musicians and staff that will be affected by us not being able to stage Splendour this year".
Nevertheless, he concludes, "we will always be willing to work with the council to make it happen in 2025 and beyond".
A spokesperson for the Council told reporters, "Since its inception in 2008, the festival has grown to become one of the best-loved in the country. We, therefore, completely understand why people will be disappointed that it won't take place in 2024”.
The tendering process, they added, “is complex and has taken longer than we would have liked - this has made the viability of delivering a festival in 2024 very difficult. However, we remain optimistic that we will be able to secure an event for future years and hope to announce plans regarding this in the coming months".