Winter's End Progressive Rock Festival has announced the postponement of this year's event, already rescheduled for May 2021, to next year. The event was due to be headlined this year by Mostly Autumn, Pendragon and German proggers Subsignal.
In a statement the organisers expressed their regret but not surprise at having to postpone this year's event, they do hope that they will retain the same line-up for next years while hoping that Summer's End Festival, scheduled in September, will still go ahed.
"While we suspect that this decision will come as no surprise, we are bitterly disappointed that we’ve had to take this action," organisers say. "Given that the Saturday of the festival remains sold out, it’s clearly impossible that we could go ahead without some sort of heavy restrictions of attendance numbers at the very least."
Festival organiser Stephen Lambe adds: "As things stand at the moment, we are optimistic that the event will go ahead in May 2022 with close to the same line up. We cannot confirm the specific date quite yet, but we’re hoping that all ticket holders will feel able to hang onto their tickets for the time being.
"We do realise that times remain tough for everyone out there at the moment, but despite a good uptake for our Golden Ticket scheme launched a few months ago, our financial situation remains precarious. We thank all of you for your help and your patience in these unprecedented times. We will announce the new dates as soon as possible, plus confirmation of the line up, particularly in the event that changes are necessary."
Looking ahead to Summer's End, fellow organiser Hue Lloyd Jones adds: "We are hoping that Summer’s End, also planned to take place at the Drill Hall on September 30th to October 3rd will be able to go ahead in some form or another. Gungfly have announced that they will not now be able to make the trip to the UK which was to include an appearance at the festival, for completely understandable reasons.
"However, we are not going to rush into a replacement until we have a better idea of how the gradual lifting of restrictions in Wales might affect the event as we go through the spring and early Summer. As things stand at the moment, the festival is most definitely ON."