Annual music festival cancelled

The town's annual music festival - The Musical Mystery Tour - has been cancelled after East Herts Council and the police expressed concerns about safety at the event.

In a statement published on social media, organisers of the Mystery Tour announced that guidance from the local authorities would make it impossible to continue with the event, which takes place on the Sunday of the Late Summer bank holiday.

Over and Out

Dear Hertford

We're so sorry – but the MMT is over. This is a very sad moment for us.

In the words of the much-missed, hugely supportive Chief Inspector Gerry McDonald back in 2014: 'Boys, you’ve created a monster' ...

Sadly, he was right. Our baby’s grown too big. 16 years ago, MMT started with one person. There are still only five of us, all with full-time jobs, working hard to make Hertford happy. But that’s about 100 too few to achieve what’s now being asked of us by ‘the powers that be’. The Safety Advisory Group (East Herts Council and the police) has given us a long and onerous ‘to do’ list. Compliance isn’t exactly mandatory. But for us it is impossible. Which means we’ll be held personally responsible and liable for anything and everything. In short, we just can’t do this anymore.

That’s all we can say for now. Don’t worry. We’re sure Hertford will still be rocking regardless on future August bank holiday Sundays… And Kev ‘s still on hand to help. We’ll go into more detail soon.

Love from Kev Saunders, Rob Guinn, John Brown, Steve Beeston and Amy Jay

The annual festival sees pubs, restaurants and other buildings staging live music across the town from midday to midnight. Last year saw 35 vinues taking part, staging perdformances by 165 acts

East Herts Council also issued a statement, saying: "Safety Advisory Groups (SAGs) provide a forum for event organisers and officers from the police, East Herts Council, fire and rescue, the East of England Ambulance Service, Hertfordshire County Council’s highways team and others to come together to share views on how events can be planned for and run to maximise public safety.

"The overriding aim is to help event organisers take the necessary steps to ensure the public’s wellbeing. It is then the event organiser's responsibility to take on board the advice when preparing their event.

"During a debrief of the MMT 2022, several public safety issues were raised and discussed with the event organiser, along with suggested actions they could take to minimise the problems happening again.

The SAG is an advisory group. The group does not have powers to object to or cancel an event and it is for the organisers to decide whether or not to hold an event in 2023. If the organisers reconsider running an event this year, officers would be happy to reconvene a SAG meeting to offer the necessary advice and guidance."

The announcement prompted over 300 comments on Facebook and 112 shares.

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