Cancelled Cambridge People Competition misplaced £320,000 closing yr

Some of the oldest folks gala’s in England was once cancelled after creating a £320,000 loss closing yr, council paperwork have printed.

The yearly four-day Cambridge People Competition, organised by way of Cambridge Town Council, first started in 1965 and has been hosted within the grounds of Cherry Hinton Corridor.

Papers printed by way of the council forward of an upcoming assembly on Thursday cited the “monetary difficulties confronted by way of the people pageant”.

It mentioned it had “earmarked £75,000 to ship another programme of folk-related occasions in 2025” forward of the whole pageant’s go back in 2026.

The cancellation of this summer season’s tournament was once introduced in January.

The pageant has hosted world headliners corresponding to Robert Plant, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Nick Cave, Girl Blackbird, Peggy Seeger and Suzanne Vega, and usually draws about 14,000 other folks.

Robert Dryden, a Labour town councillor for the world, mentioned in January that the cancellation got here as a “large surprise” that will “disappoint a lot of people”.

Labour-run Cambridge Town Council has printed papers forward of a scrutiny assembly on 20 March which can have a look at the explanations at the back of the cancellation.

The council mentioned the papers would “obviously define the selections taken by way of the pageant organisers… to make sure the a success long term of the much-loved Cambridge People Competition”.

The papers proceed: “The United Kingdom track pageant trade is dealing with popular monetary pressures.

“Those have dramatically impacted the continuation of gala’s within the contemporary years.

“Massive firms… dominate the pageant panorama.

“In 2024, Latitude, which is typically held at the penultimate weekend in July, selected to transport to the closing weekend in July, in direct pageant with the Cambridge People Competition.”

The council mentioned it analysed comments from attendees in 2024 and mentioned some alluded to decreased crowd sizes, and “attributed this to clashes with different gala’s together with Latitude”.

The paper provides: “In 2024, the people pageant incurred a provisional lack of £0.32m. Within the years previous to the Covid pandemic it returned a mean benefit of over £0.2m to fund loose group occasions in Cambridge.”

The council mentioned that “whilst revenues have remained extensively strong, prices have greater considerably as they have got for the entire of the United Kingdom pageant sector”.

It mentioned it was once “dedicated to the long-term luck of the the world over acclaimed Cambridge People Competition”.

“Throughout the 2025 fallow yr, the council will assessment the layout of the pageant in order that it may well go back in 2026.”

It mentioned it was once making plans different leisure “together with loose outside occasions and venue-based folks concert events”, extra main points of which it will announce in April.