Organisers cancel Illusive Festival following “perfect storm” of costs and ticket sales

The Illusive Festival has been cancelled.

This year’s Illusive Festival has been cancelled, with organisers citing a “perfect storm” of rising costs and advance ticket sales as the reasons behind their decision.

The three-day festival was set to take place at its regular home of Deene Park in Corby in September.

In a statement shared on the event’s social media platforms, organises said: “After a week of very intensive talks between the team, it is with the heaviest of hearts that we have taken the difficult decision to postpone Illusive Festival 2022.

“Following the overwhelming success of last year's festival, with a record attendance and our biggest production to date we were highly motivated.

“However, the perfect storm of huge cost increases, the national cost of living crisis, people being able to go abroad for the first time in two years and a packed UK festival schedule has created an impassable financial block for this year.”

Thousands of people regularly attend the event, which sees names from across the drum ‘n’ bass and dance worlds perform.

This year Basement Jaxx, Beans On Toast, Camo & Krooked, AMC and Ace Ventura were among dozens of acts set to play.

The statement continues: “Although our festival has an amazing crew who work to build the site in a very short time frame, without having the required amount of tickets purchased in advance, we are simply unable to pay the much needed deposits required to secure the artists and the infrastructure ahead of us moving to site. “

The statement continues to say while the event could have been scaled back, it was not something which organisers wanted to do.

Adding, “This is not how we run Illusive Festival. It never has been and it never will be.

“We have to make this decision now to safeguard the future of Illusive Festival for many years to come.”

Anyone who has purchased a ticket for this year’s event will have it automatically rolled over to next year's festival.

Refunds are also available via https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk until September 30, 2022.

Organisers have said they are considering new stages, bigger sound systems and a more immersive experience for when Illusive returns next year.

For more information, visit https://illusive-festival.co.uk