Cancelled beer festival customers will get refunds after bosses mistakenly said no tickets were sold

Organisers of a now-cancelled Craft Beer Festival have confirmed customers WILL get a refund after mistakenly believing no tickets had been sold.

The Didsbury Craft Beer Festival, to be held on the late May bank holiday at Didsbury Sports Ground, was refused a licence earlier this week over police and council fears over crowd safety. PC Alan Isherwood said the force’s biggest fear was over ‘the calibre of the events’ acts’.

The event was set to feature performances from 90s electronic duo K Klass, ex-Smiths drummer Mike Joyce, and legendary Hacienda DJ Graeme Park.

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“It is likely to generate a lot of interest from music lovers which will lead to more than 499 [people, the maximum for a temporary licence] at the event which would lead to calls to GMP,” the cop added.

“Our concern is that through word-of-mouth, people will say ‘have you heard they are playing?’ and they will go down. Our concern is how they will be dealt with and kept out.”

Clive Szmit, appearing on behalf of the Sports Ground, said the event had been organised while it was ‘trying to stay alive’.

“Nothing is set in stone for us,” he added at the licensing meeting. “If that means changing the acts or leaving this festival, that’s what we are happy to do.”

During the meeting, Mr Szmit said that advertising had started briefly, but no tickets had been sold. It has now transpired that ‘around 15 tickets’ were sold after punters contacted the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A spokesperson for the organisers has now confirmed that every customer will be eligible for a full refund. They said: “The tickets are sold through Skiddle, a well-respected ticket sales