Spalding Festival called off for third year running

Spalding Festival has been cancelled for a third year, due to a lack of sponsorship.

The beerfest and live music event, organised by Spalding Round Table and Spalding Ladies’ Circle, was due to take place for a fifth time.

However, the organising committee has been unable to gain enough sponsorship to safeguard the running of the event this year.

It comes against a backdrop of financial uncertainty in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused the cancellation of the event in 2020 and 2021.

One of the Spalding Festival bars

And South Holland District Council was believed to be less enthusiastic about the festival this year because it has events on the same weekend to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Tom Bradshaw, chairman of Spalding Festival organising committee, said: “We’re very disappointed to have to cancel it again.

“After the past couple of years of Covid, we really wanted to put it on again to give people something to look forward to.

“So we’re sorry to those thousands of people, we’re sorry to all the bands, organisations and financial backers that support us but, most of all, we’re sorry for the local good causes who would’ve benefited from the fundraising.”

The festival began in 2016 and regularly attracted more than 5,000 visitors across the three days.

It’s raised about £100,000 – the majority of which has been distributed to a wide variety of good causes in the district. Spalding Festival is the only charity-led event of its kind in South Holland.

Planning for this year started last September and Mr Bradshaw said the committee had felt it necessary to accept the vastly increased fee for hiring the Castle Sports Complex main hall and Castle Field.

“The hire cost more than doubled from 2019 when we last held it.

“We’ve been offered other venues at no cost but we want to keep it in the town centre – we think that’s important to the people who come and enjoy it,” he added.

“We did think about pushing the date of the festival back for this year but we’re keen to keep it established on the spring bank holiday weekend in May so people know when to expect it each year.”

The committee is now focusing its attention on bringing Spalding Festival back for its fifth year in May 2023.

“It will be bigger, it will be better and we’ll look forward to seeing everyone again then,” said Mr Bradshaw.

The scheduled dates are Friday, May 26 to Sunday, May 28. Anyone who can offer support is asked to make contact through Spalding Festival’s Facebook page.