Down at the Abbey will not take place in 2025.
2026 event date is the weekend of 12th September 2026 – the ticket waiting list will remain in place for this event.
We know many of you have been eagerly awaiting some further news on Down at the Abbey and we have appreciated your patience. With the first three event editions we have learnt it’s a much-loved event – your enthusiasm, feedback, and community spirit continue to inspire us. That’s why we’re sharing this update with both honesty and optimism: Down at the Abbey will return – but sadly not this year.
The core challenge for us today is a familiar one in the current landscape: financial risk. As a small and responsible event organiser, we must always plan for and have the means to cater for event losses before we proceed with any event. Following the difficult post-pandemic years, we do not currently have reserves to absorb sizeable losses without additional support – something we’ve seen become a defining issue for many independent events across the country.
Our plan going into 2025 was to first focus on Arts Council England for some event support. If the application failed, we had a back-up plan to proceed in a less risky one-day format this year. In January we invested in a professional grant writer and submitted a strong application to Arts Council England in February. The initial bid was declined in April, but we were advised to resubmit again. Sadly, this was also declined in June.
Their feedback in both outcomes was the same – we had met all criteria and there were no identified weaknesses in our proposal – the challenge is simply that demand for Arts Council support has dramatically increased, and funds are limited. The terms of applying to Arts Council England are that we could not book artists or put tickets on sale for the 2025 event until the outcome was known from them.
Whilst we were awaiting the outcome of the Arts Council England bid, sadly our back-up plan became unviable with the announcement of a new festival event booked for the weekend after Down at the Abbey. Whilst we support and encourage all those working in the grassroots and emerging artist sector, it does not make sense for either event to be competing in such proximity for local artist performance bookings and fan ticket purchases. This is why we must ultimately delay our return, and we wish them all the very best with their event this year.
Dates for Down at the Abbey are set for the weekend of 12th September 2026. Those previously on the waiting list for 2025 tickets to go on sale will not need to rejoin. As before, we will only put tickets on sale when we know we are able to proceed. We once again thank you for your patience whilst we remain committed to making Down at the Abbey a sustainable, special and forward-thinking event that reflects the talent, vibrancy and character of our community.
