Smaller music and food festivals struggling

Falmouth Oyster Festival and Padstow Christmas Market have cancelled their 2024 events blaming rising costs.

The Masked Ball will hold its final event in October after 17 years of all night dance music parties.

Several other public events in Cornwall have pulled the plug saying they are not financially viable.

Smaller music events like Little Orchard are continuing but say they face "increasing cost challenges".

The oyster festival hopes to go ahead in 2025 but this year's event is "financially unviable" according to organisers.

A smaller event is being planned in Falmouth by oyster fisher Chris Ranger.

He said: "We are by no means trying to compete, nor take over the festival."

Padstow Christmas Market was cancelled back in May.

Organiser Tina Evans wrote to traders saying she had been left with no alternative but to cancel the event.

She said: "Having paid out deposits and initial costs, it has become painfully obvious that the festival could not carry on.

"So to minimise the financial loss as far as possible to cancel now is the best option."

The Masked Ball hold fancy dress parties at venues across Cornwall, the events have been going on in some form for 17 years.

The event at Flambards village this Halloween will be the last after plans to host the event at a country estate near Truro fell through.

Festival organiser Kelvin Batt said: "The big events that make lots of money are here to stay but smaller festivals like ours have always struggled because it's not really been about the profit.

"We started with just 350 people but as you get larger you need things like traffic management, stewards, more toilets, fire safety, first aid and it all gets too stressful."

Little Orchard festival, an event at Healy's Cider Farm near Newquay with a capacity of about 5,000, went ahead last weekend and there are plans to hold the event in 2025.

Event director Lou Martin said: "Quite a lot of festivals have finished this year, the costs of everything have gone up so much.

"It's an ongoing challenge for us to get the best prices but also to keep being creative."

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