After a great deal of thought, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause Festability for 2026.

A number of factors have contributed to this: major funding bids being turned down, rising event and infrastructure costs, ticket sales being significantly lower than usual, and a major drop in social media reach which has meant many people simply haven’t seen our posts. Vanessa has also stepped back from day-to-day operational work (though she remains involved strategically), which leaves the full weight of planning and delivering the festival with Debs alone.

Because of this, it isn’t feasible to run Festability in 2026 in its current format - even as a one-day event. The issue isn’t the number of days; it’s the overall resources, capacity, and funding needed to deliver the accessible, safe and joyful festival our community deserves.

Pausing now allows us to protect the long-term future of Festability.

This is a pause, not a stop.

Festability will return, and we are already starting to plan for 2027.

We’ll be running a small number of fundraising events in 2026 and will share details in the coming months.

All 2026 ticket holders will receive an automatic full refund.

If you have any queries, please contact us.

Thank you, as always, for your support.

Festability exists because of this community, and this pause is how we protect what makes it special.