03/07/2023
With a heavy heart and great reluctance, we are forced to announce the cancellation of 2023 North Wales Blues and Soul Festival. We have taken this decision to protect the long-term future of event and in the sincere hope and belief that we can return with a full scale, outdoors festival in 2024.
We are a Community Interest Company – a social enterprise operating on a not-for-profit basis - and like many organisations of our kind, we are being badly affected by the Cost-of-Living crisis. It is impacting people’s ability to spend on non-essential activities and the willingness of sponsors to commit. This economic reality has seriously reduced our advanced ticket sales, presenting us with a stark picture that we have not seen since the festival launched in 2014.
On the one hand, we simply do not have the financial resources to endure significant losses. On the other, we feel a responsibility to the venue and the artists on our bill to deliver an audience worthy of their performances. In previous years, we have achieved this goal. It saddens us greatly to see that we would expect to fall short this time. Many of the acts we work with struggled through two years or more of Covid restrictions and did not, unlike so many working people, benefit from furlough payments. Live music is not their hobby - it is their vocation, and gigs like ours are their only means of financial support. So, it is particularly galling not to be able to fulfil our commitment now.
Needless to say, full refunds will be made available to all ticket holders, and we of course apologise for disappointing all of you who had made plans to come to Mold and enjoy our festival. Ticket holders will be contacted by Theatr Clwyd’s box office with the offer of a refund or a credit to book again.
We would also like to thank our volunteers who have put many unpaid hours in the expectation creating three more days that our community in Mold could be proud of. Our hosts Theatr Clwyd understand our position and have supported the action we are taking now. Like us, they hope the festival can return and be back to its barnstorming best in 2024.
