Councillor apologises over way Cambridge Folk Festival 2025 cancellation was announced after ‘spin’ claim

An executive city councillor has apologised for the way the cancellation of the 2025 Cambridge Folk Festival was announced after accusations of “spin”.

At a special scrutiny meeting last Thursday (20 March), opposition councillors complained that the Labour administration waited 10 days to tell them of the decision and noted that the official announcement did not use the word ‘cancellation’ once.

Cllr Rachel Wade (Lab, West Chesterton), executive councillor for communities, argued there had been “no intention to be manipulative or spin”.

She said they had not used the word “cancellation” in the press release as people might take that to mean the festival would not be coming back.

Cllr Wade said: “I acknowledge that communications perhaps did not get the message across. If the message was not communicated then obviously we need to improve and I apologise for any confusion caused.”

She said the decision not to hold the event in 2025, but to bring it back in 2026, had not been taken lightly, but was the right thing to do to “secure the festival’s long-term future”.

She said: “Our beloved Folk Festival is not unfortunately unique, in that it has not escaped the ravages that have afflicted the festival industry, especially independent festivals like ours.

“It was with a heavy heart that I made the difficult decision for a fallow year, but I knew to secure the festival’s future despite causing disappointment and dismay to many people in the city.

“To ensure the future of the festival and to face the challenges that are confronting the entire festival industry a fallow year is the way forward, rather than ignoring the issue, as projections showed that without significant change in ticket sales and reduction on costs we would impact further funds.

“I must be responsible and mindful of public funds and I have a responsibility to our residents to ensure that we prevent greater financial risk.

“So we need to pause to have a full review and to reset to secure the festival’s long-term future.”

Sam Scharf, director of communities, said the decision was taken through the appropriate governance channels.

A report to the meeting noted the 2024 festival made a provisional loss of £320,000, as the Cambridge Independent exclusively revealed in January.

Mr Scharf said this was “primarily due to rising infrastructure costs”, as well as a decline in ticket sales, in particular fewer weekend tickets being sold.

It was not anticipated that this would change in 2025, with further losses expected if the event went ahead.

The report said the executive councillor took the decision on 7 January to have a fallow year and request “additional programming during 2025 to mitigate the impact”.

The public announcement was issued on 17 January.

Mr Scharf said 200 early bird tickets were sold for the 2025 festival, and everyone was offered a refund and free tickets to one of the venue-based events taking place this year.

To date, 45 people have accepted the refund.

An independent review will look at the future format and financial model of the festival.

Alternative events for this year will be announced in April.

Cllr Cheney Payne (Lib Dem, Castle) said she was informed of the cancellation in a “brief conversation” on 16 January, the night before the public announcement.

She said the fact that the administration “waited 10 days to share it” with the Liberal Democrats looked “carefully choreographed” - as it came after a scrutiny committee meeting.

Cllr Payne highlighted that the press release issued by the council “did not mention the word cancellation once, but talked about being back”, which she attributed to a “level of spin”.

Mr Scharf said after 7 January, it took time to make sure they could be clear about what was happening in 2025 and that the festival would be coming back in 2026, in order to maintain the confidence of suppliers, agents and artists.

He added that the communication had “clearly caused confusion”, but claimed if people read the announcement it was “not unclear what the intention was”.

Cllr Olaf Hauk (Lib Dem, Trumpington) asked why the review had not been requested earlier after the last festival had finished, when the council knew there had been a loss.

Cllr Wade said she had received a report with the information on 30 December.

Cllr Jean Glasberg (Green, Newnham) said the cancellation had been “very disappointing” and the way people found out “made it such an unpleasant shock”.

She was “glad” a review was planned but was worried about the timescales and whether the council would have enough time and money before 2026 to follow through on any potential recommendations.

Cllr Payne asked Cllr Wade what lessons she had learnt from this “mess”.

Cllr Wade said lessons included the need for “clear communication because things can be taken out of context and misinformation abounds and things are spun”.

She said other lessons learned included that the council had a “dedicated and committed team”, and that the festival was “internationally held in high esteem”.

Cllr Wade added that a “huge positive lesson” had been the feedback from the folk community, who she said had been “willing to come and talk and help us move forward with our plans for next year”.