Access All AreasThe Gwên Gwen Festival in Kidwelly, Wales, was cancelled on Friday, 11 August, just hours before its gates were due to open.
Set to run from 11 August to 13 August, the event was due to see performances from acts including Dub FX, Aleighcia Scott, Gentleman’s Dub Club and Example.
On Friday, headliner Example cancelled his Sunday appearance and took to social media to express concerns about a lack of communication with the event’s promoter.
He said, “The promoter of this event has breached a number of points in the contract. We have had zero communication regarding the stage, technical and backstage setup. Something we cannot just turn up to unprepared and essentially would be going into the show blind.”
The independent event was overseen by community organisation Gwen Community and Regeneration CIC. Organisers issued a statement on social media that said the team were ‘truly devastated” to announce the festival’s cancelation.
It said, “The team have worked tirelessly over the past nine months, especially this week under extremely challenging circumstances with weather making the site build difficult and as a result of these challenges and the associated added extra costs, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the event.
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly and sincerely apologise for the disappointment this will cause. We want to thank all the ticket holders, volunteers, artists, traders, contractors, security and everyone who has helped under extremely difficult circumstances and gone above and beyond to make this work.”
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