'We tried our best': Organisers call time on popular family-friendly South Yorkshire music festival
The announcement came in a post on Wentfest’s official Facebook page
A popular South Yorkshire family-friendly festival that was hoping to celebrate its decade anniversary this year has been forced to abandon those plans.
Wentfest, the music and comedy festival that has drawn thousands to Hooton Lodge Farm in the Dearne Valley, has been cancelled by its organisers, who say two main investors have lost “hundreds of thousands” of pounds – including at least one house – and can no longer continue.
The announcement came in a post on Wentfest’s official Facebook page, in which the team said: “It’s been a great nine years but we’ve just not been able to make it work. We can’t get to the 10th anniversary, there is just nothing left.”
They added: “Our two main investors have lost hundreds of thousands over nine years, including at least one house, and can’t continue.
"We tried our best, we threw everything at it, but it beat us.”
The statement went on to praise the venue and team at Hooton Lodge Farm, saying: “It’s not the venue, Hooton Lodge is an amazing space with a great team.
"If we’d started there without building up the debts that the first few years left us with, it may have been a different story.”
Organisers also pointed to ticket sales as the key factor: “The fact is, another 500 tickets a day and we’d have been fine. We just couldn’t do it.”
Wentfest began life in 2017 as the Wentworth Festival, organised by much-loved BBC Radio Sheffield DJ and comedian Toby Foster and Steve White.
From the outset it was positioned as a chart-topping, family-oriented day out in South Yorkshire, with early line-ups featuring acts such as Blue, Scouting For Girls, Heather Small, Five, Tony Hadley, The Feeling, Lemar and Kim Wilde.
Over the years the event built a reputation for mixing well-known pop and soul names with a dedicated “New Music Stage” that gave emerging bands – including Late Night Legacy, Shanghai Treason and The Rosadocs – a high-profile platform.
After relocating to Hooton Lodge Farm in Hooton Roberts, the festival settled into a familiar format: a main stage, a new music tent, and the Last Laugh comedy tent, alongside fairground rides, street food and licensed bars.
The 2025 edition went ahead with a “family-friendly” bill and camping options, promoted as “the ultimate day out in the heart of the Dearne Valley”.
Ahead of the planned 2026 event, organisers had announced Australian pop star Jason Donovan as headliner, with additional acts including S Club Party, Complete Madness, Frida and a special DJ set from Max and Harvey, plus a full comedy line-up and a Phoenix Nights cast Q&A.
The organisers’ message framed Wentfest’s demise as part of a wider squeeze on smaller UK festivals: “It’s not just us, we can all read, small festivals are pretty much done for, but we really thought we could make it happen in The Dearne Valley.”
Their comments echo warnings from across the sector.
In 2025 and 2026, dozens of UK festivals have been cancelled or postponed, with organisers citing soaring production costs, artist fees, insurance, transport and the cost-of-living crisis hitting ticket sales.
Industry body the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) reported around 20 independent UK festivals cancelled or postponed this year alone.
Smaller events have been particularly vulnerable, with some describing profitability as “not the focus” and survival as a struggle against “exorbitant costs combined with lower sales”.
The statement’s closing lines – “Our team were amazing, the acts over the years were amazing, the days were incredible” – read as a farewell to a community that has rallied around the event since 2017, and to the local traders and volunteers who have staffed its bars, food stalls and comedy tents.
Hooton Lodge Farm itself continues to run a “programme of events that are second to none”, according to the post, with a 2026 calendar including country, soul and ska weekends, tribute shows and other live music dates.