Health concerns amid the continuing spread of the COVID-19 led Southport Weekender Festival organizers to call off this year’s edition, just over a week after announcing is was all systems go.

The UK’s longest running dance and urban music festival created by Alex Lowes was originally scheduled for March 20th-22th at Bognor Regis’ Butlins Resort, but due to the initial spread of the coronavirus pandemic, it was then postponed to March 19th-21st 2021. Among the confirmed acts were Kerri Chandler, Louie Vega, David Rodigan, Roger Sanchez, Kenny Dope, Moodymann, Gilles Peterson, Joey Negro, Dimitri From Paris, DJ Spen, Mr. Scruff, Souldynamic and many more.

Following the great response as tickets quickly sold out, last December organizers announced a 4th one day Southport Weekender Festival, set to take place at Crystal Palace London on September 5th. On July 24th a press release stated that the summer edition of the event was likely to happen, but on Tuesday, August 4th, however, the festival was being moved again, this time to September 4th 2021, effectively ending any prospects that the 2020 festival would return.

Here’s the full statement.

Dear friends,

SOUTHPORT WEEKENDER FESTIVAL POSTPONED
UNTIL SEPTEMBER 4TH 2021

We are very sad to be bringing you the news today that we have taken the decision to cancel this years Southport Weekender Festival, just over a week after announcing is was all systems go.

We cannot apologise enough for giving everybody false hope – the general opinion from the end of June was that the virus was rapidly receding and that by the end of August we would all be in a better place, but unfortunately during the last week or so it appears that progress has stalled a bit and we’re going to have to hold on for a bit longer before we can contemplate putting on large shows again.

We had spent many weeks making careful plans to deliver a safe event in conjunction with the local authorities, but in the light of recent developments we reluctantly think it best to postpone to next year now. We always said safety was our NO 1 priority and this has to be the case above all else.

The most important thing is we all do our bit to get rid of this thing so we can enjoy better times ahead. We had an absolutely brilliant lineup of artists from across the UK and Europe lined up and a good few of our American family as well, but the dream is not to become a reality. Things will get better but just not now and September 5th is just a little bit too soon.

We cannot thank everybody enough for your wonderful support from both yourselves and the many people in the industry hoping we could pull this off for the sake of something we all love. We gave this a right go to get things moving but alas circumstances have moved against us after things were looking so positive a very short while ago.

With regards to refunds, thankfully we are in a position to offer these, because at least we have had a little time to plan, but it goes without saying that if you can support us by rolling these over until next year it would help us enormously.

Anyone who has been given complimentary tickets from Bognor will of course have these honoured, and these will be 100% applicable for next year.

Ticket Arena Customer Refunds: https://forms.gle/grJvNd63XzS1c7Ed7
Festicket Customer Refunds: https://forms.gle/syrjBtxHfQnAp4ak8

 
REMEMBER TO STAY KIND 
 
A lot of events that were due to take place at the weekend with planned reduced capacity crowds in order to kickstart the industry, like ourselves including Goodwood with a 5000 cap, have had to be postponed. So many talented people in the Music Industry from the Artists to visual, sound & lighting teams, to bar staff, riggers, the marquee companies, caterers & plant suppliers have zero work & are struggling. We tried our absolute best to get this on to at least get us back to a little bit of normality, but alas September is just too soon & the main thing, for now, is safety above all else. 
 
We’ll be back in 2021 bigger than better than ever 
 
Stay safe.
 
Big Love 
xx

Stay tuned for more info.

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