Standon Calling is no more as festival goes into liquidation

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Standon Calling

Standon Calling has held its final edition after the company behind the festival confirmed it had gone into liquidation.

The Hertfordshire event’s two-day iteration launched in 2006, and it has since hosted sets from the likes of Florence + The Machine, Charli XCX, Primal Scream and Bastille.

Read More: Why have so many UK festivals been cancelled or postponed?

Its most recent edition took place in 2023, with the following two festivals not being held due to a “very challenging climate”. Organisers had last month shared plans to return in 2026, but without a camping option and with no after-dark raves.

However, it has now been announced that Standon Calling is no more.

“We regret to announce that after 17 Standon Callings the 2023 Standon Calling will now prove to have been the last,” an official statement read (via BBC News).

“Due to significant financial losses sustained in 2022 and 2023, we were unable to run the festival in 2024 and 2025.”

The message continued: “For the last 18 months we have engaged with a number of potential investors to continue the festival, including one party for the last 13 months.

“With huge regret, additional investment has not been secured and we are left with no other option than to put the company into the control of the liquidators.”

Organisers added: “We are hugely grateful for all the support that so many people have given to the festival over the years, which helped build Standon Calling into what it became since its inception in 2006.”

A licence had been approved for the festival to return in 2026, following a series of local council meetings involving founder Alex Trenchard. The conditions stipulated that the capacity did not exceed 20,000 people, including staff and performers, and that attendees would be off-site by midnight each day.

Last month’s update also stated that Standon Calling 2026 would consist of eight days of music and entertainment, spread across two weekends. The dates were not confirmed at the time, but the event was due to be held on consecutive weekends between May 1 and September 30.

Early last year, some performers and food vendors complained that they were owed tens of thousands of pounds from the 2023 festival.

A November 2024 report from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) found that 72 UK festivals had been cancelled or postponed that year, doubling figures from the previous year.

John Rostron, AIF CEO, called 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 explained. “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.

“It is sad to see that this erosion has been allowed to continue under this Government. We have great events, with great demand, and we’re doing all we can. They need to step up, and step up now.”

Speaking to NME about the cancellation and postponement of various music festivals, Oscar Matthews, co-owner of Barn On The Farm, said: “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.”

Alex Lee Thomson – Director of Green House Group, which coordinates strategic digital marketing campaigns for festivals including Barn On The Farm, Rockaway Beach and 2000Trees – admitted that the UK “probably had too many summer festivals”, with events “all competing for the same real estate artist and customer-wise”.

“Most independent festivals have a very delicate cash-flow, so lockdown followed by the general economic state of the UK right now has made what was already very difficult, just impossible,” he told NME.

The AIF launched a campaign last year to temporarily lower the VAT on festival tickets from 20 per cent to five per cent, to provide financial relief to festivals on the verge of cancellation.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that the music industry had contributed a record £7.6billion to the country’s economy in 2023, as the grassroots sector continued to struggle.

Other impacted music events in recent years include Bluedot Festival, Nozstock, Takedown Festival, Sundown Festival and Black Deer Festival.

The post Standon Calling is no more as festival goes into liquidation appeared first on NME.