Perth music festival called off as organisers blame BBC’s Stirling event
Replay Festival says ticket sales for Replay Festival hit by Radio 2 in the Park
Organisers of a Perth music festival have cancelled the event, blaming the BBC’s forthcoming Radio 2 in the Park event in Stirling.
Blue and Natalie Imbruglia were due to top the bill at the Replay Festival on August 15-16.
Ticket sales started in November but organisers said they fell by more than 50 per cent after the BBC unveiled its Stirling dates three months later.
The Perth event has now been postponed until May 2027.
In a statement, Replay accused the BBC of “killing off grassroots Scottish independent music culture from London”.
The Replay Festival organisers said: “We were encouraged by initial Replay sales against a difficult market and what has proven to be challenging economic times for all of us in Scotland in 2026.
“The BBC Radio 2 in the Park announcement in Stirling immediately reduced sales for Replay and many other festivals by over 50 per cent.
“Had we known this event was planned, we would have had an opportunity to delay or postpone, but Stirling Council and the BBC decided to keep it under wraps for over six months before announcing it.
“To be clear, the Radio 2 event is subsidised with license payer money and doesn’t contribute in any meaningful way to Scotland’s economy.
“This is an event that license payers are subsidising at the expense of the non-central belt area that benefit financially and culturally from the local Scottish Festival market, which was always going to be devastated with an event of this size with its free channels for marketing and publicity.
“The BBC is supposed to be nurturing new talent and encouraging musical development not killing off grassroots Scottish independent music culture from London.
“Having actively engaged with BBC executives, we managed to secure a postponement from August until early September, the date they have always held it in England for 15 years to avoid this impact on festivals there which we hoped would help mitigate the downturn.
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“Over several meetings with BBC executives, we were given a documented assurance from some of the most senior leaders in the organisation that none of the artists for BBC Radio 2 event would be the same as those headlining other local festivals in Scotland.
“This undertaking turned out to be false, with their recent announcement that headliners Blue from Replay, Level 42 from Discovery Dundee, Emile Sande from Summers End and Cast from Party in the Palace are all now appearing at the BBC R2 event, plus an approach was also made to our Saturday headliner Natalie Imbruglia which she declined.”
A BBC Spokesperson told The Courier: “Radio 2 in the Park is looking forward to bringing some of the biggest UK and international artists to Stirling in September.
“The BBC is committed to supporting the independent festivals sector and we hope that the festival will make a positive impact on the local community, just as we have done around the UK in previous years, including Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Dundee in 2023.
“Since announcing the festival was coming to Scotland we have engaged extensively with local festival organisers and stakeholders.
“We listened to concerns about the impact of staging it in August, when other events and festivals are taking place, and moved Radio 2 in the Park to new dates in September.”
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