Nene Valley Rock Festival granted licence but Cambridge Rock Festival cancels

(Image credit: Press)

In a conflicting tale of two nearby music festival this weekend, the newly announced Nene Valley Rock Festival was granted a licence to operate at the end of the last week, while at the same time the nearby Cambridge Rock Festival cancelled, citing licence issues.

The Nene Valley Rock Festival will take place at Nene Park in Peterborough from August 31 to September 3, and will see performances from Lifesigns, Curved Air, Arthur Brown, Colosseum, Ten Years After, Corky Laing's Mountain, The Groundhogs, Leaf Hound, Square Wild, Last Flight To Pluto, Haze, The Far Meadow, Hayley Griffiths, The Emerald Dawn, The Paradox Twin, Pearl Handled Revolver and ELP tribute act Noddy's Puncture.

A report in Cambridgeshire News that appeared last week claiming the event would “destroy the harmony and upset the equilibrium of the local area," initially cast a shadow over the new festival, but it was subsequently announced that NVRF had been granted their licence and would go ahead.

However at the same time, the Cambridge Rock Festival, which has been running since 2004, suddenly announced the event would no longer be going ahead. In a statement in the event Facebook page organisers said: "It is with deepest regret that the Cambridge Rock Festival Committee need to let you know that this year's festival cannot go ahead as planned. Although this would have been our third time at Horseheath Lodge, the Licence now required (not the same as previously), has in practise taken the decision out of our control for this year. As you can imagine we are devastated to have to break this news to you."

Caravan, Threshold, Mostly Autumn, Martyn Turner, Ghost Of The Machine, Stray, Don Airey and FM were among the bands booked to appear at Cambridge this year.

Ticket holders can apply for a refund or carry their tickets over to next year's proposed event which would see the event celebrate its 20th anniversary. In the wake of the cancellation, London Prog Gigs have Pearl Handled revolver replace Space Elevator at their upcoming gig at London's Fiddler's Elbow on August 3, while a gig is being organised at Norwich's Brickmakers for other displaced CRF acts.

Get tickets for Nene Valley Rock Festival.

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.