A NEW Perth music festival has been called off just weeks before it was due to go ahead, with organisers blaming the BBC’s upcoming event in nearby Stirling for the move.
Bosses behind Replay Festival, due to take place on South Inch on August 15-16, announced the event back in November.
The BBC revealed it would be hosting Radio 2 in the Park in Stirling this summer a few months later. That event was originally planned for the prior weekend, but shifted back to September 11-13 after discussion between the organisers.
According to Replay, ticket sales slumped by more than 50% after the BBC announced its plans for the Stirling event.
Replay confirmed the event would be postponed until May 2027 on Wednesday night, while also putting out an 800-word statement blasting the BBC for “killing off grassroots independent music culture from London”.
The Perth event also accused the BBC of poaching acts from their line-up, such as Blue, who are now performing in Stirling instead.
Replay claim the BBC event tried to book Natalie Imbruglia, who is headlining, but the star declined.
Meanwhile, Radio 2 in the Park also includes acts like Level 42 and Emeli Sande, who had also been set to play at smaller festivals around Scotland. One of those, Discovery Festival in Dundee, has now also been cancelled.
Discovery, too, hit out at the BBC when they made the decision to call off the festival.
In its statement, Replay said: “As we were negotiating for solutions in good faith to save the Scottish festival market, the BBC had already signed their acts and clearly misled us.”
Bosses behind Replay commented: “Simply put, the BBC have acted in poor faith, and this has affected both Replay and other local festivals in 2026, both in terms of brand reputation and financially.
“This one event has cost Scottish festivals and their supporting infrastructure hundreds of thousands of pounds and has led to the loss of smaller independent events taking place up and down the country.
“We have tried our very best to get Replay to where we had predicted it would be when we launched in November 2025, but we simply cannot continue and run at a further substantial loss.”
The Replay team are asking ticket holders to transfer their passes to the new dates in May next year, or instead transfer to the Summer’s End Angus festival, featuring Sugababes and UB40, next month.
