A festival in Birkenhead Park set to feature bands such as Echo and the Bunnymen has been cancelled.
The 2022 Wirral Food, Drink and Music Festival, set to take place in September, will not go ahead due to what the council calls its “current financial position”. In February, councillors voted to make £20m worth of cuts across Wirral Council’s budget.
This will see the council withdraw funding from nine libraries, Woodchurch Leisure Centre and two public golf courses. While this festival was supposed to be a commercial event that would not directly cost the council money, it would have required considerable resources from across the local authority to support it.
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Given the pressure on the council’s resources, the authority felt it was no longer possible to run the event. It is the third year in a row the event has been called off, with the 2020 and 2021 festivals being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year, Echo and the Bunnymen, OMD and The Coral were all due to play at the Birkenhead Park festival. All those who bought tickets will be contacted directly and given a full refund.
Alan Evans, Wirral Council’s director of regeneration, said: “It is disappointing to see the Wirral Food, Drink and Music Festival unable to go ahead, but we will make sure all those who have bought tickets are refunded as quickly as possible.”
