Athlone's River Festival cancelled

Athlone's River Festival and Food Village planned for the weekend after next has been cancelled.

A statement from the organisers last evening said:

'It is with great regret that the organising committee of the Athlone River Festival & Food Village have taken the difficult decision to cancel this year’s festival.

The committee, which is comprised of volunteer organisers from across the Athlone community, have had to make this decision due to the spiralling costs of running the event since last year.

The committee would like to sincerely thank everyone involved for their support and hard work and apologise for any disappointment or inconvenience the cancellation has caused.

The organising committee is very saddened that we have had to make this decision. We have explored every possible means of going ahead with this year’s event but unfortunately the figures just don’t add up and we are unable to meet the dramatically increased costs of running this year’s festival.

We would like to sincerely thank all of those who have worked so hard, all on a voluntary basis, to organise this year’s event for their local community, and everyone who pledged support.

All of the sponsorship and donations that we received for the 2016 festival will be reimbursed within the coming week.'

The festival, due to take place from Friday, September 9 to Sunday, September 11, was to have included a cookery demonstration from Michelin star chef JP McMahon, a free live concert by John Spillane, a cook off between Thyme restaurant owner John Coffey and local TD Kevin 'Boxer' Moran among a plethora of other evens.