Richard Ashcroft pulls out of Tramlines Festival due to test event status

Musician apologised to his fans for ‘any disappointment’

Richard Ashcroft has pulled out of Tramlines Festival after it was announced it would serve as a government pilot event.

The musician shared a statement on Instagram with a screenshot of a news article, which announced the festival would be able to go ahead as part of the government’s test programme for large-scale events.

“Apologies to my fans for any disappointment but the festival was informed over 10 days ago that I wouldn’t be playing once it had become part of a government testing programme,” he wrote.

“I had informed my agent months ago I wouldn’t be playing concerts with restrictions. The status of the festival was one thing when I signed up for it, but, sadly was forced to become something else. It must be an age thing but the words ‘government experiment’ and festival,” he added with several cry-laughing emojis.

He added the hashtags #naturalrebel and #theydontownme.

A number of UK festivals have been able to make plans as part of the government’s pilot events scheme, including Latitude Festival and a Download pilot, the latter of which hosted 10,000 music fans last month.

Other acts on the Tramlines lineup include Royal Blood and The Streets.

The Independent gave Ashcroft’s last album Natural Rebel two stars, calling it “hideously overindulgent”.