The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Rewind Scotland festival at Scone Palace cancelled
R willewind Scotland has announced that the popular Scone Palace event be cancelled for a second year.
The festival said that planning a festival on the scale of Rewind would be “totally unplausible” under the current published guidelines.
The music festival was due to take place between July 23-25 in Perth, but an update from organisers said they had decided to cancel it.
Organisers had said earlier in April they were confident the festival could go ahead.
They have blamed a lack a clarity in government guidance for their decision.
“It is with massive disappointment that Rewind Festival HQ has to announce that, the decision has been made to cancel this year’s planned Rewind Scotland 23rd-25th July,” a statement on the event’s website said.
It added: “Following the recently published guidance from the Scottish Parliament, it has become clear that planning a festival on the scale of Rewind is totally unplausible and we simply can’t push ahead with planning for July 2021 with any confidence.
“In the rest of the UK, we have very clear guidance that states from 21st June there will be a lifting of all restrictions, which gives us a timeline we can all work with regarding the other Rewind Festivals taking place.
“Unfortunately, we just don’t have that in Scotland.”
Rewind North at Capesthorne Hall and Rewind South in Henley, England, will proceed as planned, the organisers said.
Favourites from the 1980s, including Billy Ocean and Wet Wet Wet, had been due to headline the festival.
Jimmy Somerville was also scheduled to bring his “big band-tastic boogie” to Perth.
Current Scottish Government guidelines indicate Scotland might be able to return to “near normal” from the end of June.
However, even under these conditions outdoor freestanding festivals would still face a limit of 1,000 people.
Rewind Scotland said they had considered moving the festival to a later date, but added that there was no clarity from the government on when the coronavirus restrictions would change.
Their statement added: “We had considered moving Rewind Scotland to another date, but as there are no assurances from the Scottish Government as to when things will change, we felt, after much deliberation, it was better to make a clear and conclusive decision at this time as opposed to finding ourselves in a situation where a rescheduled date had to change again.”
Ticket holders will be able to transfer their tickets to events in England, request a refund, or roll their ticket over to next year.