KNUTSFORD Music Festival is set to return next summer with as much of the line-up from this year’s planned event as possible.

The town council cancelled the 2020 festival due to the coronavirus pandemic, and 227 out of 253 tickets have been refunded or processed to be refunded.

Due to the pandemic many events planned for spring and summer 2020 were cancelled or postponed to 2021 and booked new dates earlier than their 2021 dates would usually be booked in.

As a result there is limited availability for the 2021 event due to limited capacity of key vendors and festival partners, including Mark Radcliffe, due to bookings made before work to set the 2021 dates.

Therefore, the proposed dates for the 2021 festival are Friday, June 11 to Sunday, June 13, which has been identified as the only viable weekend to hold the event.

It is proposed to rebook as much of the planned 2020 line-up for 2021 as possible. This would include transferring the whole Folk at the Theatre line-up.

All of these artists, bar 2020 headliner Kate Rusby, are available on the suggested 2021 dates, which would allow the opportunity to offer the community the chance to rebook tickets to see these artists, for which organisers had sold more than 70 per cent of tickets before lockdown.

It is proposed to re-book 2020 headliner Kate Rusby, or a replacement if she is unavailable, to be determined by Mark Radcliffe in consultation with the music festival working group.