‘An extremely difficult decision’ LooseFest organisers explain cancellation

LooseFest, a festival set to take place in Newcastle over this weekend (Saturday, August 5 and Sunday, August 6) was cancelled due to safety concerns over bad weather.

The event was to be held on Newcastle’s Town Moor, with around 60,000 people set to attend the two-day music festival, and over 80 huge acts set to perform, including Craig David, Patrick Topping, Sean Paul, Example, Joel Corry, Belters Only, Alan Fitzpatrick, Tinie Tempah and Chase & Status.

However, after what was described as a rare “weather bomb”, the festival announced on the Saturday morning that the entire weekend was cancelled.

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The festival announced the cancellation of the weekend via their social media pages, writing: “We deeply regret to announce that despite previous weather assurances and the best efforts by our festival and site team, unfortunately for reasons beyond our control LOOSEFEST23 is cancelled this weekend. We have been advised by the safety team and local authorities are in agreement that the festival site is not safe to open.”

Now, the organisers of the festival have issued a further statement from the LooseFest director to further explain the situation.

Director of LooseFest Brian Austin said; “Shortly before the gates were due to open to the public we were advised by the safety team with the local authority in agreement, that the festival site was not safe to open. It was an extremely difficult decision, but the safety of every single person, from the festival goers to the artists, crew and everyone on site was paramount.

“It’s a heartbreaking decision, but the right one, sadly the one thing we can’t control is the weather”.

LooseFest has also reassured that ticket and refund updates will follow in due course, and that all updates will be posted to the LooseFest social media pages.