Live Nation Entertainment has canceled two of its major UK festivals – just as the company’s stocks have started bouncing back after taking a nose dive last week as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Announcing the news on Twitter simultaneously, Live Nation-run Download Festival and the Isle of Wight Festival revealed that their 2020 editions would not be going ahead as planned from June 12-14 and June 11-14, respectively.
Download had booked KISS, System Of A Down and Iron Maiden to perform, while the Isle of Wight would have seen the likes of Lewis Capaldi, Lionel Richie and the Black Eyed Peas play.
In addition to these two events, Live Nation’s UK festival portfolio also includes (amongst others) the dual Reading and Leeds Festivals set to take place from August 27-30; London’s Lovebox scheduled to take place from June 12-14; Warrington’s Neighbourhood Weekender which is set for May 23-24; Manchester’s Parklife (June 13); London’s Community Festival (June 28); London’s Wireless Festival (July 3-5) and Greenwhich Music Time, also in London (July 6-11).
At the time of writing, no updates have been released regarding these events.
The cancellations of Download and the Isle of Wight follow last week’s news that the UK’s iconic Glastonbury Festival is officially not going ahead this year.
You can read both Download and the Isle of Wight’s statements in full below:
Download Festival will no longer be taking place this year.
We’ve been closely monitoring this unprecedented situation and it’s become clear that it just isn’t possible for the 2020 festival to go ahead. This decision hasn’t been taken lightly and we’re beyond disappointed, we extend our heartfelt apologies to all of you – we really did try to make this work.
Please rest assured we will be back next year. Now, more than ever, we need the Download spirit to thrive and offer support to those that need it most. We’ll do our best to put together an amazing line up for you in 2021 and can’t wait to see you all then. Thank you, as ever, for your continued support.
We are working closely with our ticketing partners now and they will be in touch very soon to process your refund, or, if you prefer, you can retain your ticket and carry it over to next year. Look out for an e-mail from your ticketing agent very soon and please only contact them if you have not been contacted after 5 days as they are very busy at this time.
The Isle of Wight Festival will no longer be taking place this year. This decision hasn’t been taken lightly and we have tried our hardest to make it work, but it was unavoidable given the current status. The whole team was excited to welcome everyone to the island for another fantastic festival and we extend our sincere apologies to everyone who was looking forward to it as much as we were.
The safety of our audience, artists, crew and the Isle of Wight community is paramount and we appreciate your patience whilst we’ve been working through this unprecedented situation.
We’ll be back stronger than ever in 2021 and we hope to see you all again next year.
We are working closely with our ticketing partners at the moment and they will be in touch very soon to process your refund, or, if you prefer, you can retain your ticket and carry it over to next year.
Look out for an email from them very soon and please only contact them if you have not been contacted after 5 days as they are very busy at this time.
If you booked ferry travel with Red Funnel, Wightlink or Hovertravel please visit this page for information regarding your booking.
We hope everyone stays safe and we’ll see you in 2021.Music Business Worldwide
