WOWfest 'postponed' after organiser suffers stroke

One of the organisers of Isle Of Wight festival WOWfest has suffered a stroke due to the stress of organising the event, with pressures put on the festival by council and police blamed for the incident.

The soul and reggae festival has cancelled its 2012 event after the local council demands £140,000 from organisers for their Premises Licence, covering 18-22,000 festival goers at the site. Organisers initially attempted to downsize the event to 5,000 festival-goers, but this was rejected over the weekend and a full police license review was implemented. Subsequently, an organiser has suffered a stroke and the summer event will not take place this year.

"We want to openly express our deepest regrets to the artists and to thank all the people, suppliers and contractors who worked so hard with us to try and pull off what has proved to be a monumental task when there have been so many people determined to destabilise the event with negative publicity and actions," say organisers in an official statement. "We also want to send a huge thanks to the partners and people who stuck by us and we are so sorry that we can’t fulfil what we set out to do in 2012.

Artists due to perform at the  event included UB40, Paul Oakenfold, Aswad, Soul II Soul, Heaven 17, Roni Size and many more.