IT has been confirmed that the advertised venue for this year's Isle of Man Bay Festival had not been booked by festival organisers.

Despite publically announcing that the festival would take place in the Valhalla Tent the structure was never booked.

Kayam, the company who own and supply the tent, have said because of this the venue was booked out for another event elsewhere.

Richard Able, a consultant for Kayam, said: "At the end of last year we had discussions with the Isle of Man festival organisers and offered them our Valhalla Tent for this year's festival on the same basis as we had supplied it in previous years.

"But no booking was confirmed. So the Valhalla was booked elsewhere and we assumed the festival organisers had secured a tent from another supplier.

"To the best of my knowledge our two Valhalla units and a further unit based in South Africa (marketed as Tensile 1) are the only tents of this type and size available anywhere and no other similar structure that I know of is marketed under the name Valhalla."

The Valhalla Tent was used by festival organisers for the Peel Bay Festival in 2007 and at last year's Isle of Man Bay Festival in Noble's Park, Douglas.

It was also supposed to be used for the Elton John concert on June 16 – the day before the festival was due to start.

Elton John had even referred to the venue after it was announced he would visit the Island for the very first time. He said: "Those fans who have been with me since the early days might remember that I recorded a song called Val-hala in 1969 on the Empty Sky album – so that must be a good omen. See you in June!"

Richard continued: "It is always our policy to do everything we can to encourage new events and the Isle of Man festival was an ambitious and promising project which we were happy to be associated with.

"It is a great shame for all concerned if it has been forced to cancel at this late stage. But as we have had no contact with the organisers since the end of last year there isn’t really any more I can tell you."

Organisers of the Elton John concert, Marshall Arts Ltd, have said they are currently doing "all they can" to ensure the gig will still go ahead.

UPDATE: isleofman.com contacted Bay Festival organisers for a respone to this. However they chose not to reply. Jonathan Irving has since told Granada Reports that he had booked a different venue for the concert – a 66 by 104 metre big top tent – from a company called Mobile Stadiums. This tent is known as a MT66 but Mr Irving has stated he feels he is "quite entitled to call it the Valhalla".

Also see: This year's Bay Festival has been cancelled - full statement from the organisers

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