Gwên Gwen Festival in Kidwelly cancelled minutes before start time

A three-day music festival in west Wales was cancelled just minutes before it was due to begin on Friday.

Organisers of Gwên Gwen Festival 2023 said the festival had to be cancelled due to "extremely challenging circumstances," saying bad weather made the site build "difficult."

The event in Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, was due to run from Friday to Sunday.

Some festival-goers had already arrived in the area before finding out about the festival cancellation on social media.

Some of the acts who were set to play included rapper Example and dub band Gentleman's Dub Club.

Example has alleged that he is yet to be paid his full fee by the festival promoters, saying on Instagram that he pulled out of the event due to the promoters breaching "a number of points in the contract."

He continued: "We have had zero communication regarding the stage, technical and backstage setup."

Festival organisers have apologised about the event cancellation in an interview with ITV Wales, and have promised that the acts will be paid.

In a statement posted on their Facebook page on Friday, festival organisers said over the past week they had been working "under extremely challenging circumstances with weather making the site build difficult and as a result of these challenges and the associated added extra costs, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the event".

They added: "This is not a decision we have taken lightly and sincerely apologise for the disappointment this will cause.

"We want to thank all the ticket holders, volunteers, artists, traders, contractors, security and everyone who has helped under extremely difficult circumstances and gone above and beyond to make this work."

They added that all refunds were being processed, and said that a further statement on the situation would be released on Monday.

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