Future of Wolvestock in doubt - with poll and pictures
The long-term future of Wolvestock is in doubt after this year's event was axed due to poor ticket sales.
Wolverhampton's annual country music festival was due to be held from July 21 to 23 in what would have been its 23rd year.
But the council pulled the plug on the two-day festival due to poor advance ticket sales.
A council spokesman said: “We had to regrettably cancel the annual Wolvestock Festival.
“The festival has been held in the City of Wolverhampton for a number of years but declining ticket sales mean the event is no longer commercially viable. Anyone who has already purchased tickets has received a refund."
Ahead of the event, a total of 16 artists had been lined up to perform across the main stage and dance stage.
Ticket prices had varied from £50 for a weekend camping ticket to £10 per day for an adult and £4 for children.
Last year, the event went ahead as planned, though fewer people turned up than expected.
For the past two years, the event has been held at Wolverhampton Racecourse. It originally started life as a free festival, used to be held open-air in Hickman Park in Bilston and then East Park.
The festival hit a high in its 18th year, when more than 11,000 people attended.
Jim Duncan, who has organised the event from the beginning, working with the council, said: "It just got less and less economically viable.
"I think perhaps people had seen how economically-priced the tickets were and thought they'd just turn up on the day rather than buy them in advance and so this has led to poor ticket sales.
"We didn't want to have all the vans turn up selling food and gifts and merchandise and have them disappointed too as they would miss out on other jobs.
"I don't think this reflects a change in taste in terms of the popularity of country music, it's just that people have decided to not necessarily support us this year."
Now, organisers are holding a line dancing event instead, featuring some of the bands that had been due to perform at Wolvestock.
The line dancing evening will be held at Northycote Farm on July 22 from 5pm till 10.30pm and include performances from Dee James and Colin Fidoe.
The news comes as almost 10,000 free tickets have been snapped up for Wolverhampton’s inaugural Festival of Food and Drink.
The weekend festival on Saturday, July 8 and Sunday 9 is the flagship event of this year’s ‘Visit the City of Wolverhampton’ programme.
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