A major festival organiser has announced it will not be staging the planned summer Sandringham concerts where a host of global stars were set to perform.
HeritageLive made the shock announcement today on social media saying it was “devastated” to report the “heartbreaking news” that it has no choice but to cancel festivals at the Sandringham Royal Estate and also Audley End Estate.
With the concerts just few weeks away, the organisers said: “We’d been working desperately hard behind the scenes to conclude an investment and equity package to ease the burden of an extraordinarily tough year, but this last beacon of hope has fallen through at the 11th hour, making it impossible to go ahead.
“As one of the few remaining British independent promoters, it’s become almost impossible to compete in what has become an increasingly saturated festival market.
“The might of huge multi-nationals has had the adverse effect of driving up supplier, artist and staffing costs, and whilst it’s still just about manageable during a normal year, the cost of-living crisis combined with general financial uncertainty has resulted in several shows having far lower than average ticket sales, making it impossible to survive in such a competitive industry, with so many rising costs.
“It would therefore be irresponsible and wrong of us to proceed without the certainty that we’d be able to meet all of our supplier, artist and crew costs.
“The whole HeritageLive team is absolutely devastated. It would have been the most amazing summer with such an extraordinary array of supreme talent, and we’re all so very sorry to let everyone down.”
A host of stars had been lined up for Sandringham from August 19 to 23 including Janet Jackson, Christine Aguilera, Eric Clapton (with Rolling Stones legend Ronnie Wood as one of his guests), Lionel Ritchie with guests Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and Joss Stone and headliner Ricky Martin with guests including Olly Alexander of Years and Years.
Tickets for the festival have been on sale for some time, and many people secured theirs as soon as the acts were announced some weeks ago.
HeritageLive has given details of refunds, saying: “You will have bought your tickets via one of our reputable ticket agents, either AXS Ticketing, Ticketmaster, See Tickets, Gigantic, Skiddle, or Ticketline.
“Please locate and keep safe your ticket transaction receipt, which would have been emailed to you from one of the above ticket agents, following your booking.
“As the ‘merchant of record, ’ ticket agents are bound by the Consumer Rights Act to process your refund “without undue delay” and in many cases this will happen automatically within a reasonable period, but please contact your ticket agent directly should you have any queries.
“Thank you so much to everyone who has supported and enjoyed our events over the past ten years.
“Whilst this is devastating news, we hope that in time you’re able to look back with fond memories to those happier days; we’ve had so many awesome and magical moments over the years and hope they remain in your hearts forever.”
This would have been the third major HeritageLive at Sandringham, with previous artists including Robbie Williams and The Who in 2023 and Mariah Carey as a headliner in 2025.
While the first concerts sparked complaints mainly relating to long queues getting into and out of the venue, many thousands of festival-goers have enjoyed the concerts, which are also a fundraiser for the estate.
While reaction was still sinking about the news, Cllr Deborah Heneghan, leader of the Labour party on West Norfolk Council, said:
“This is really disappointing news. So many music fans will be saddened by the cancellations, which will also have an impact on many local businesses.
“I know some residents were unhappy with the traffic congestion caused by these events but the concerts at Sandringham brought thousands of people to West Norfolk and benefited the local economy – especially in the hospitality sector.
“I would like to thank Heritage Live for concerts in previous years. I myself had a very memorable night watching The Stereophonics last year. The events were very popular and well organised.”
Many people countrywide have will have already booked accommodation and taxis to and from the event and could face losing out.