The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival has been postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic for a second year.
The music and arts festival was due to take place on the Belladrum Estate, near the Highland village of Kiltarlity, between July 29 and 31.
Instead, everyone with tickets will be offered either a transferral to the 2022 dates – between July 28 and 30 – or a full refund.
A post on the festival’s Facebook page reads: “To postpone two years in a row is a tough blow and we cannot thank you enough for your support for the festival.
“You blew us away in 2020 with your participation in our virtual event and your engagement throughout these really tough times has kept us all going here at Bella HQ.”
‘Too many uncertainties’
The post adds: “No one wants to be back in the fields at Bella more than us, however, the status of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has made it clear that delivering an event we all know and love, just isn’t going to be possible this year.
“Whilst the vaccine programme appears to be progressing well and there are signs of light at the end of the very long tunnel, we feel there are still too many uncertainties surrounding the potential restrictions that may be in place.
“We don’t want to deliver an event we aren’t proud of or compromise in any way on the magic that makes Bella so special to all of us.
“We are aware that there are some events that are going ahead and we have considered all options for how Bella might look but the nature of the weekend camping show we have just doesn’t make it possible.”
In the statement, festival organisers said they had been working alongside the rest of the UK music industry in discussions with the Westminster government over the possibility of providing an insurance policy.
Without that policy, they said the risks of going ahead with the plans to hold the festival were “simply too huge”.
The organisers believed there was still a chance of holding the 2021 event as recently as two months ago when, following the cancellation of the Glastonbury Festival, they reassured fans that Belladrum was “considerably smaller in scale” and therefore had a chance of going ahead.
Acts who were initially announced for the 2020 festival before it was cancelled included Emeli Sande, Shed Seven and the Magic Numbers.