Council criticised over axed Cambridge Folk Festival
The authority's leaders say the decision to take a fallow year was necessary to “secure the festival’s long-term future”
News By Lisa Henderson | 21 March 2025
Council leaders have defended their handling of the cancellation of this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival after it emerged the event lost £320,000 in 2024.
The 60th-anniversary edition of the UK’s best-known folk music event was canned in January – though organiser Cambridge City Council insisted the 14,000-capacity event will return in 2026.
A recently published council report has pointed to “widespread financial pressures” across the UK festival sector as the cause of the festival’s cancellation.
The report reveals that the folk…