Sundown Festival will not return in 2025: “It’s been an unforgettable journey”

Sundown Festival have announced that they will not be returning in 2025, either in their Norwich home or at their Malta spinoff.

• READ MORE: Why have so many UK festivals been cancelled or postponed?

The festival has been running for 12 years, expanding over time into a five-stage event as it grew, and eventually opening its own Mediterranean offshoot.

In a post on Instagram on Friday (November 29), the festival wrote: “After careful consideration however, we regret to announce that Sundown will not be returning to Norwich or Malta in 2025.”

“We want to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who’s been part of this journey,” they added. “Most of all, a huge thank you to our fans – you’ve been the heartbeat of Sundown. Your energy, passion, and memories have made everything possible, and we’ll never forget the moments we shared together.”

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“If you’ve already purchased tickets for 2025, refunds will be processed automatically through See Tickets. Keep the party spirit alive and keep supporting festivals.”

The 2024 edition of Sundown ran from August 30 to September 1 and featured performances from D-Block Europe, Tom Grennan, Mahalia, Kenya Grace and Flo.

The news arrives on the same day that the Kent-based Black Deer Festival also announced that they were postponing their 2025 event, citing “financial and operational” pressures. They have said they intend to return in 2026, however.

The pair of stories come in the light of a report that as many as 72 UK festivals were cancelled or postponed in 2024, doubling the number from the previous year.

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) added that including the 96 events that were lost during the COVID pandemic, it is a total of 204 festivals that have now disappeared since 2019.

By March this year, 21 UK festivals had already been cancelled, postponed or scrapped, with AIF CEO John Rostron calling 2024 a “devastating period” for festival organisers in the UK. “The festival sector generates significant revenue in and around local economies as well as to the Treasury every year,” he said. “We have campaigned tirelessly for targeted, temporary government intervention which, evidence shows, would have saved most of the independent events that have fallen in 2024.”

Speaking to NME about the cancellation and postponement of various music festivals, Oscar Matthews, co-owner of Barn On The Farm festival, shared: “It’s inevitable and it’s already started, but when you start to lose smaller festivals, events, gig spaces and venues, the opportunities disappear for new and emerging talent to get on stage and get their music heard. They’ll suffer and that will inevitably have a knock-on effect further up the chain.”

It follows recent findings that the music industry contributed a record £7.6billion to the country’s economy in 2023, while the grassroots sector continues to struggle.

In hopes of securing a future for live music, the government recently backed a levy on gigs at arena level that will see the UK’s smaller venues, festivals, rising artists and promoters receive a contribution from bigger gigs.

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