We are FSTVL: London music festival with major electronic headliner cancelled with weeks to go
A London music festival due to take place in under a month has been cancelled after record rainfall sparked safety concerns.
We Are FSTVL was scheduled for the weekend of 25 May, with drum and bass duo Chase & Status and Swedish DJ Eric Prydz booked to headline at Central Park in Dagenham.
Organisers announced on social media they were deeply disappointed the event had been cancelled after Barking and Dagenham council said Central Park couldn’t safely host the festival.
Writing on X/Twitter, We Are FSTVL organisers said they were “devastated” by the cancellation of the festival for reasons beyond their control.
The team behind the event claimed they had made “detailed plans” and invested “time and money” into improvements from previous years, including new stages and art installations.
“Sadly, and just days before we were due to attend on site to start the build, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham accepted that they could not deliver a safe event space that was fit for the purpose of allowing us to stage We Are FSTVL 2024,” they explained.
“We are heartbroken by this decision.”
In a press release on Monday, Barking and Dagenham council announced the cancellation of the festival “due to health and safety concerns” following “record levels of rainfall”.
“[The council’s] recent assessment of Central Park, after record levels of rainfall this year, has found the site cannot safely host the physical demands of We Are FSTVL’s equipment and audience,” the statement read.
“We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Ticket holders quickly made their disappointment known on social media. One user wrote on X/Twitter: “Gutted, imagine cancelling Glastonbury due to record levels of rainfall for health and safety reasons!! Sort it out London Borough of Barking and Dagenham!!!”, while another added they’d only just “bought tickets last night” for the event.
We Are FSTVL was previously the focus of safety concerns when festival goers “collapsed” after queuing for three hours in the sun while a crowd pushed through security gates in 2019.
“They’d run out of wristbands at the door so they didn’t have drink token wristbands when they were letting people through,” a woman told Radio 1 Newsbeat.
“They weren’t handing out water so everyone in the queue for three hours didn’t have a drink.”
