Quote There will be no Saul Canal Festival and Folk on the Water Weekend in 2009.
Directors of the Cotswold Canals Trust have accepted a recommendation from their trading arm that the deepening economic crisis would radically affect a 2009 event.
The Trust considered at length the Festival's format, aims, costs, income and risks.
It concluded that the ever-increasing expenditure on the infrastructure and services needed to stage the event no longer enable the Festival's fund-raising aims to be met.
You will recall that the 2007 "washout" cost the Trust a significant sum, and this year's poor weather on Sunday reduced the surplus considerably.
We feel it important to thank the many individuals and organisations that have enabled us to stage the event over the years, including the Support Staff volunteers, traders, sponsors, service providers and entertainers.
Thanks are also due to the loyal following of boaters, campers, day visitors and folk music fans from far and near.
Such loyalty and support, between 2001 & 2008, has meant that Saul Canal Festival & Folk on the Water Weekend has raised an impressive total of £136,573 for the restoration of the Cotswold Waterways.
The Cotswold Canals Trust intends to concentrate in future upon other awareness and fund-raising activities along the route of the Cotswold Canals.