THIS year's Manx Telecom Bay Festival has been cancelled.

 
This is the official statement from organisers which has just been issued in full:

 
"Although we have explored every avenue to keep the festival alive we cannot see a sustainable way to make it commercially viable due to poor ticket sales.

"For that reason we have been forced to take the sad decision to cancel this year's which was due to be held on June 17, 18 and 19, 2011. We have taken the decision now to give as much notice as possible.

"We should clarify that the Elton John concert due to be held on June 16 2011 was not part of the Isle of Man Bay Festival and will take place. We understand that the promoters of the Elton John concert will be issuing a separate statement shortly.

"We are extremely sorry for disappointing those who have loyally supported the festival and we will be processing refunds for those who have purchased tickets.

"To register for a refund please write to IOM Bay Festival Ltd, PO Box 1234, Peel, IOM, IM99 9YA on or before the closing date of June 17, 2011 enclosing proof of purchase and you'll refunded on or before July 29, 2011. Please do not email or phone as claims for refunds can only be handled by post.

"We hope we may be in a position to return with a third IOM Bay Festival next year, though it is too soon to say any more than that at this stage as it will be purely down to an improvement in the Island's current economic climate. Obviously if we did hold it again people who purchased this year would be given a special reward next time.

"We were hoping that the goodwill created during last year's festival, which incurred a considerable loss, would have resulted in increased ticket sales this year to get it closer to a breakeven position being our third festival. However regrettably, the festival has sold even less tickets at this stage than it did last year despite having a full and varied line-up and introducing two stages in two parks.

"Based on the sales experiences of the last two festivals we can’t count on significant sales between now and the festival. It will be appreciated that we cannot indefinitely underwrite these events if there is no foreseeable viable future.

"We have spent over £100,000 promoting this festival on and off the Island but spending even more would not produce any greater results. The festival itself was costing over £1.5 million to stage.

"However we believe last year the festival was undermined from the outset when the Manx government took totally unnecessary and aggressive action against a sister company when a structured solution had already been agreed.

"The direct consequential flow by association through extensive negative publicity came at a very crucial time in the festival's planning and distracted us as we dealt with the aftermath and the associated negative headlines. This also introduced substantial doubt as to whether the festival would actually go ahead which affected confidence in the event.

"Equally because of the events that surrounded Street Heritage we faced a situation that the departments of government we approached for assistance told us they had a 'policy of no co-operation towards the festival' which meant this further hindered the planning stage.

"For instance the Welcome Centre at the Sea Terminal refused to sell our tickets or display our leaflets etc due to this apparent 'government policy'. Also when we had requests to cover costs from national papers and periodicals to cover the festival for the benefit of 'Isle Of Man plc' the government again refused assistance on the same basis of 'no co-operation'.

"We also believe that due to the ineffective leadership by the Manx government that the economic scene has been set for the Island's current lack of confidence and it has instilled unnecessary economic woes. This in turn has caused the uncertainty that has had an adverse affect on ticket sales as people lack confidence in the future.

"We would wish to conclude by sincerely thanking everyone who supported this event and apologise for the obvious disappointment the cancelling has caused. However it will be appreciated that this is way beyond our control as it is a simple fact that if not enough people wish to support the event it makes it totally unviable and thus unsustainable."

isleofman.com has contacted the Isle of Man Government for a response to this statement.