Helen Burchell
BBC Information, Cambridgeshire
Hannah Olsson/BBC
The competition started within the Sixties and draws 1000’s of enthusiasts each and every 12 months
Probably the most oldest people fairs in England used to be cancelled after creating a £320,000 loss remaining 12 months, council paperwork have printed.
The once a year four-day Cambridge Folks Pageant, organised through Cambridge Town Council, first started in 1965 and has been hosted within the grounds of Cherry Hinton Corridor.
Papers printed through the council forward of an upcoming assembly on Thursday cited the “monetary difficulties confronted through the folks competition”.
It stated it had “earmarked £75,000 to ship another programme of folk-related occasions in 2025” forward of the total competition’s go back in 2026.
Ian Olsson Images
Pageant organisers stated they might proceed to make stronger the folks group with a sequence of occasions all over Cambridge
The cancellation of this summer season’s tournament used to be introduced in January.
The competition has hosted world headliners akin to Robert Plant, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Nick Cave, Girl Blackbird, Peggy Seeger and Suzanne Vega, and normally draws about 14,000 other folks.
Robert Dryden, a Labour town councillor for the realm, stated in January that the cancellation got here as a “giant surprise” that will “disappoint a lot of people”.
Labour-run Cambridge Town Council has printed papers forward of a scrutiny assembly on 20 March which is able to take a look at the explanations in the back of the cancellation.
The council stated the papers would “obviously define the choices taken through the competition organisers… to make sure the a success long run of the much-loved Cambridge Folks Pageant”.
Hannah Olsson/BBC
Cambridge Town Council first made up our minds to carry a tune competition in 1964 for the next summer season – the primary tournament bought 1,400 tickets and almost about broke even
The papers proceed: “The United Kingdom tune competition trade is dealing with popular monetary pressures.
“Those have dramatically impacted the continuation of fairs within the contemporary years.
“Massive companies… dominate the competition panorama.
“In 2024, Latitude, which is most often held at the penultimate weekend in July, selected to transport to the remaining weekend in July, in direct festival with the Cambridge Folks Pageant.”
The council stated it analysed comments from attendees in 2024 and stated some alluded to lowered crowd sizes, and “attributed this to clashes with different fairs together with Latitude”.
The paper provides: “In 2024, the folks competition incurred a provisional lack of £0.32m. Within the years previous to the Covid pandemic it returned a median benefit of over £0.2m to fund loose group occasions in Cambridge.”
The council stated that “whilst revenues have remained extensively strong, prices have greater considerably as they have got for the entire of the United Kingdom competition sector”.
It stated it used to be “dedicated to the long-term good fortune of the the world over acclaimed Cambridge Folks Pageant”.
“All through the 2025 fallow 12 months, the council will overview the structure of the competition in order that it might go back in 2026.”
It stated it used to be making plans different leisure “together with loose outside occasions and venue-based people concert events”, extra main points of which it might announce in April.
