The organisers of the award-winning Beat-Herder Festival have confirmed that this year’s event will go ahead - albeit with a reduced capacity.
They put out a statement this week ending speculation that the popular dance and world music event held in the Ribble Valley would be forced to take a break for a year due to the economic pressures - a move which a number of festivals around the country have already made.
On their official Facebook page they said: “Recently we’ve seen a lot of other festivals pull the plug on their 2024 editions, taking a fallow year to ride out the huge price increases and we can totally see where they’re coming from.
“Beat-Herder is not immune and the truth of the matter is, with the costs that are now filtering through, running this year’s event in its usual form is not possible.
“The savage economic realities have put us in a bit of a pickle. We could call a fallow year and come back swinging into 2025, it’s the risk-free option that’d allow us to sleep at night…
“…but sleeping at night is not what we’re about! We started with free parties in the early noughties, began our own small festival in 2006 and have grown organically to the scale you now know.
“We’ve run events of all shapes and sizes, battled floods, fires and financial squeezes and there’s absolutely NO WAY we’re cancelling or postponing!
“We’re reducing the capacity, a bijou Beat-Herder, on a scale reminiscent of the early days. The advertised line-up will remain, and so will most of the venues. Tubes, tunnels, flames, flags, bubbles, bells and whistles will all be there.
“We won’t be cutting corners, we’ll be adding new ones and bringing you an intimate event with a thicker layer of Beat-Herder love spread right to the edges.”
Among the artists taking part will be Leftfield, Orbital, The Wailers, Dub Pistols, Beans on Toast and Henge. There will also be DJ sets from the likes of James Holroyd, Utah Saints, Flavio and Grooverider and Bez from the Happy Mondays.
The boutique festival sees bespoke areas created for the event on the site off the A59 near Sawley.
Organisers have said that due to the reduced capacity, the demand for tickets will be high - the full-sized festival is traditionally a sellout - and are urging festivalgoers to buy now.
Beat-Herder will run from July 18 to 21. For details visit www.beatherder.co.uk
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