Suffolk’s cajun, blues, and country festival Red Rooster has been definitively cancelled for 2020, just weeks after proposing a new September date.

The festival organisers had said that lifting of Government restrictions on outdoor live events meant they would be able to go ahead with a festival at the beginning of September, instead of their original late May weekend date.

But in a statement today they blamed a lack of engagement from Public Health England for creating too much uncertainty over the event, and pulled the plug until June 2021.

The statement said: “It is with a very heavy heart that we must unfortunately announce that Red Rooster will not be proceeding on 4th-6th September.

“Red Rooster already had a license and we knew that with a little blood, sweat, and tears, we could pull everything together and get the show on the road.

“We prepared in record time over 300 pages of documentation and COVID-19 specific risk assessments. We pulled together a whole new production and rebooked all of the line-up which we were due to release later today.

“We submitted all of our documentation and health and safety measures, and although we are extremely appreciative that West Suffolk Council and the emergency services all wanted to support Red Rooster proceeding in September, Public Health England have failed to engage with us and they have failed to reach out to discuss our plans.

“Public Health is a vital part of the process of getting the green light, and we would not proceed without us being 100% certain of all our measures and that we had their approval. We are immensely disappointed in them failing to engage with us.”

“We wanted to be a shining beacon for others on how we can get our industry back on the road, and we fought all we could to try and make this happen. We are immensely sad that although we understand we were seeking answers within a tight period of time, we couldn’t have everyone see just how important our endeavour to proceed with Red Rooster was.”

Existing ticket holders will be transferred to the new dates of June 3 to 5 2021.