An official announcement has now been made on the Facebook page of the event – due to take place on 5 and 6 September at the Royal Jersey Showground. It will be the first time a music festival will not take place on the site since Jersey Live was established in 2004.
It followed comments from Trinity Constable Philip Le Sueur, who said the team behind the festival had given ‘advance notice’ that the event would not be taking place.
This year’s Weekender event – organised by Warren Le Sueur – was due to feature artists including Sigala and Ella Henderson. Mr Le Sueur has already been forced to cancel his other large-scale festival, Out There, due to Covid-19 restrictions.
A statement on the Weekender Facebook page, said: ‘All of us at Weekender are absolutely heartbroken to announce that we will not be able to return in 2020 due to the ongoing restrictions related to COVID-19. Given the Level 1 guidance that is about to be released over the next 24 hours, it makes it impossible for Weekender, the Channel Islands’ favourite festival, from taking place in September this year.
‘There is nothing we take more pride in than putting on a world-class festival for you, and the people who visit our little island. Throughout these testing and challenging times, the last few months we have tried to remain positive in the hope and belief that we could deliver Weekender to you later this summer, unfortunately this is no longer a possibility.
‘We are aware that this announcement may have come slightly later than many would have expected, however we waited as long as we possibly could for official government guidance to be published while we explored every possible avenue to keep the festival alive in 2020.’
Prior to the announcement being made, Trinity Constable Philip Le Sueur, said: ‘I received a call last week from one of the organisers to give me advance notice – I use the term very loosely – that they had finally made a decision that the event would not be going ahead this year.
‘I did comment that it came as no surprise – when you can’t have 40 people at your wedding reception, how do you square proposing to gather 8,000 people in a field?’
