Coventry's Godiva Festival Cancelled After Flash Flooding

Coventry's free Godiva Festival has been cancelled due to flash flooding caused by stormy weather in the city on Thursday (28th June 2012) which has affected the War Memorial Park venue.

According to assistant chief executive of Coventry City Council Jos Parry, they were initially planning on going ahead with the festival if the weather had settled by Thursday. "We held off making the decision as long as we could and we've been working with some very experienced festival build people", she told BBC News. "They've been saying the backstage area of the War Memorial Park is now too dangerous - it's very boggy and vehicles are getting stuck and people are slipping over". More than 100,000 music fans were expected at the 15th anniversary of the UK's most popular free weekend festival after attracting over 120,000 in 2011. Parry explained that it was difficult to obtain insurance for bad weather at festivals. "The cost of the festival is the cost of what it would have been should it have gone ahead, which is around 350k", she said. "A lot of that has already been spent because you need to pay people to come in and do the work"

She did, however, confirm that the Olympic Torch relay will continue through the venue as it is due in another, safer part of the Park. Due to headline the festival on Friday were Echo And The Bunnymen supported by Space, with Cast playing the event on the Saturday, with The View and The Pigeon Detectives in support.