UK’s 2025 Black Deer Festival Cancelled Amid ‘Unpredictable Ticket Sales’
Another music festival has been called-off amid a year of financial and operational difficulties across the industry.
Kent, England’s Black Deer Festival was set to return to Elridge Park from June 13 to 15, 2025. However, festival organizers revealed over the weekend that after “seven wonderful years,” next year’s edition of the Americana-based festival would have to be postponed.
“Black Deer Festival 2023 & 2024 have both proved significantly difficult both financially and operationally, with unpredictable ticket sales and ever rising production costs, given the general economic conditions,” organizers shared. “The strain on our independently funded festival has taken a toll and despite all our best efforts, the landscape continues to prove challenging and has forced us to postpone our festival next year.”
Chris Russell-Fish, Managing Director of Black Deer Group, noted in a statement that while they’ve “explored all avenues to try to make it work next summer,” the festival “just isn’t feasible.”
“We are immensely thankful for our audience, who come back year-on-year to discover and enjoy the brilliance that is Americana, which is why in June 2024, we launched Black Deer Live & Black Deer Radio to support our huge, growing community,” Russell-Fish said. “Whilst our three-day annual festival has brought Americana to many, we wanted to be able to bring Black Deer to even wider audiences around the UK – all year round.
“Through our new channels and our collective determination to do many more Black Deer Live Events in 2025, we are tremendously excited and looking forward to welcoming our current community and new fans to the genre, as we roll-out our other activities Watch this space.”
Russell-Fish noted that there are 44 Black Deer Live shows already scheduled with tickets remaining, as well as several gigs yet-to-be announced at various small and local grassroots venues, along with larger venues across the UK.
“With the genre ever-growing in popularity, we have a clear vision to bring the Black Deer Americana Family to as many people as possible, audiences both here in the UK and across Europe, which informs wider audiences, as we rebuild, bigger and better for Black Deer Festival 2026’s return; rest assured, our passion for Americana music and the community it brings together remains as strong as ever,” Russell-Fish said.
| READ: Festival Season Hits Lull With Dozens Cancelled This Summer |
Black Deer is not alone; the music festival scene has hit a lull this year across the globe. In the UK alone, 72 festivals have been cancelled in 2024, according to the Association of Independent Festivals.
AIF has campaigned for a temporary lowering of VAT on festival tickets from 20% down to 5% — a reduction the association hopes would save most events that closed this year. AIF CEO John Rostron called on government intervention.
“This has been a devastating period for the UK’s festival organisers,” Rostron said in a press release. “Ours is a highly important sector that offers opportunities to artists, audiences, and develops creative skills and volunteering opportunities across all of the UK. The festival sector generates significant revenue in and around local economies as well as to the Treasury every year.
“We have campaigned tirelessly for targeted, temporary government intervention which, evidence shows, would have saved most of the independent events that have fallen in 2024. It is sad to see that this erosion has been allowed to continue under this Government. We have great events, with great demand, and we’re doing all we can. They need to step up, and step up now.”
An increase in the cost of living and a spike in costs are partially to blame; according to a Sky News analysis, festival ticket prices have risen 17% in five years, totaling €165.92 in 2024. There are also other factors at play, including the reconstruction of festivals post-pandemic and the increase in production costs.
Freddie Fellowes of The Secret Garden Party told Sky News that global companies that have a share of the festival market can be compared to an “apex predator” noting that they are “there to make money and reward their shareholders. But they aren’t about supporting grassroots, talent, or anything like that.”
In Australia, large-name events like Splendour in the Grass and Groovin the Moo festivals have been called-off this year, and Ireland saw the cancellation of major events like Body and Soul in County Westmeath and Wild Roots in County Sligo. Even in the U.S., festivals are struggling; Firefly announced it would not return to Dover and Jay-Z’s Made in America festival was called-off for the second year in a row. Lovers & Friends’ inaugural festival was also cancelled, as well as Backwoods Festival, Kickoff Jam, Los Angeles’ Besame Mucho Festival, and the long-running Pitchfork Festival.
