We Are FSTVL 2024 has been cancelled by the local council, who cite “record levels of rainfall”.
READ MORE: Why have so many UK festivals been cancelled or postponed?
This year’s edition of the festival was set to kick off next month, launching on May 25 and running across the weekend. Chase & Status and Swedish DJ and producer Eric Prydz were booked to headline, and other performers included Jamie Jones, Marco Carola, LF System, Dennis Ferrer, Hannah Wants, Groove Armada (DJ Set) and Low Steppa.
Now, the organisers of the Dagenham festival have confirmed that the event has been forced to be cancelled due to the weather conditions, and set to return in 2025 instead.
Taking to Facebook this afternoon (April 29), the official page shared an update, explaining that the decision was made by the local council and organisers were left “devastated” by the news.
“Last year, when we were looking for a new home, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham offered us the beautiful Central Park and we worked with them to create detailed plans for how the Festival would work this year and be better than ever before,” the update read.
“We had invested time and money into the new site, new stages and brought in a new Creative Team to bring the weekend to life with immersive experiences and large art installations, alongside the already fantastic lineup, which we couldn’t wait to share with you.
An Important Update Regarding We Are FSTVL 2024.
Posted by We Are FSTVL on Monday, April 29, 2024
“Sadly, and just days before we were due to attend on-site to start the build, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham accepted that they could not deliver a safe event space that was fit for the purpose of allowing us to stage We Are FSTVL 2024.”
The post continued, adding how it was forced to cancel the event due to putting punters’ health at the forefront: “London Borough of Barking and Dagenham say that the difficult decision to cancel has been made for health and safety reasons after record levels of rainfall this year.
“We are heartbroken by this decision and can’t wait to dance with you again in 2025 and show you everything we have been working on.”
All ticket holders are entitled to a full refund and expected to be contacted shortly via email with further information.
The news that the weather conditions would be putting an end to We Are FSTVL 2024 comes following reports that a record amount of rainfall fell over the past 18 months.
The update was shared by Sky News at the start of the month, and recalled how 1,695.9mm of rain fell between October 2022 and March 2024 – making it the highest amount of rain for any year-and-a-half period in England since the Met Office began collecting comparable data back in 1836.
General view of festival goers in the mud during a festival in England (Photo by Andrew Benge/Redferns/Getty Images)
It beat the previous record of 1,680.2mm, which had only been set the month before, covering September 2022 to February 2024.
The update from We Are FSTVL also comes following various figures from the UK independent festival scene speaking to NME at the start of the year, and recalling why so many grassroots events have seen cancellations recently or are taking a fallow year in 2024.
Among the issues were many financial reasons, which led to the closure of Herefordshire’s Nozstock Hidden Valley – who confirmed that 2024 would be their final incarnation after 26 years due to “soaring costs” and financial risk” – and the Shepton Mallet skating and music festival NASS, who announced that they wouldn’t be putting on an event this summer either as it was “just not economically feasible to continue”.
The post We Are FSTVL 2024 cancelled due to “record levels of rainfall” in UK appeared first on NME.
