Perthshire festival cancels over low ticket sales

A music and arts festival in the grounds of a historic country house in Perthshire has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

The organisers of the Otherlands Music and Arts Festival at Scone Palace, Perth also cited rising production costs and the loss of grant funding as reasons for pulling the plug on three-day event planned for 11-13 August.

Describing the decision as "devastating" and "heart-breaking", they said in a statement they were "absolutely gutted that we could not make the festival a reality this year".

The statement continued: "An independent festival comes with a whole host of challenges and despite doing everything we can, we are unable to deliver the show to the high standard it needs to be, and therefore it is no longer viable to continue".

The announcement comes as the Association of Indepedent Festivals says the costs associated with putting on an event are becoming "untenable" for indepedent festivals.

This year would have been the second outing for the festival, which took place for the first time in August 2022.

The festival has committed to refunding all ticket holders within 14 days.