UPDATE: The festival organisers have told This Is Cornwall that they have been given the go ahead by Kent Council to hold the festival at Port Lympne.
Celia Norowzian, one of the organisers, told the publication: “We are delighted to still be able to hold Beach Break Live but hope to return to Cornwall in the future.”
Those who made travel arrangements for the Newquay site will receive a discount towards next year’s festival, the organisers said.
No full refund of accommodation and travel costs will be made this year, but ticket buyers will be able to get their money back if they do not wish to pay for the additional trip to Kent.
The student festival Beach Break Live 2009 could be moving to Kent, the event’s organisers told The Linc this morning.
Originally supposed to be held between 16 and 19 June just outside of Newquay, Cornwall the event would have been a rural affair – a Glastonbury feel but with a good surfing beach, 10 minutes away by bus.
But now because of “site problems” the organisers told The Linc they are having to move the event “somewhere” in Kent. Around 10,000 students are expected at the festival.
The Beach Break Live 2009 (BBL) festival is supposed to start a week today. Dizee Rascal, The Zutones, Noisettes, Ladyhawke and Hadauken are among the festival’s headlining acts.
But the news about BBL 2009 have all been up in the air to whether or not it will happen. On Sunday, on the festival’s website it was reported:
“…we took the hit of the century and the event was controversially and unexpectedly de railed by a small number of well connected Councillors against the advice of every authority and the planning department. Since then St Agnes has been back on, then back off, solicitors and barristers employed, back on, tears shed, and then again back off.”
The organisers wrote on the event’s site about more of their troubles with the local council:
“On Thursday the council, who wanted the event to go ahead but who were not willing to undermine their councillors, told us they believed they had found a way for the event to be held on an amazing site 10 minutes down the road. We wept with relief, and were about to tell you all on when the ordeal started again with us being told the event could run, then it could not, then it could and then finally that it could not.”