Music in the Gardens: Sadness as popular festival at Sheffield Botanical Gardens folds due to rising costs

A popular and long-running Sheffield music festival has folded due to a combination of rising costs, tightening restrictions and a lack of volunteers.

Music in the Gardens had been a fixture at Sheffield Botanical Gardens for nearly two decades, attracting some big names over the years including James, UB40 and The Feeling, 10CC and The Proclaimers.

But organisers of the summer event announced in February that this year's festival would not be going ahead and they have now confirmed it is ending for good.

Posting on Facebook, they said: "After raising over £500,000 for local charities, Music in the Gardens has folded and will not be returning.

"The costs of staging the event, the rapidly inflating costs of artists, the tightening restrictions imposed on the requirements of outdoor venues, have made the event untenable. Add to that the inexorable march of time and its effects on the organisers, and the lack of willing volunteers prepared to give an extensive amount of time required means the organisation has folded.

"One final reward was to be able to divide the balance of the organisation's bank account between the fabulous Sheffield Botanical Gardens for hosting us, Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra, Castleton Camp, and the Rotary Clubs of Sheffield, Wortley and Rotherham Sitwell."

They added: "It is with a heavy heart mixed with pride and a sense of achievement that we say goodbye and thank you. It's been a blast."

The announcement has been met with great disappointment on social media. One person called it 'very sad news' and said 'thank you for wonderful memories', another wrote how the event would be 'sadly missed by many', and a third person commented: "So sorry to hear this but we have wonderful memories of so many fabulous musical evenings over the years. Thank you."