A POPULAR Hampshire festival has cancelled this year's event. The team at Blissfields said it is with "tremendous sadness" that the Micheldever event won't take place this year.

They blamed poor ticket sales for this July's event - which would have been the 18th.

But husband and wife Mel and Paul Bliss said industry competition, the rising cost of booking artists and changes in the music industry have made it "harder and harder each year to produce and promote the show." In a statement the team said they had planned to "reinvent" the event this year with a "micro-festival," and take the festival "back to its roots."

But they said: "We didn’t want to just rest on our laurels, rather continue to challenge and intrigue you.

"Sadly though it seems that’s not what the public wanted – at least not enough for us to go ahead with Blisscamp this year. As not enough tickets are sold for us to start finalising and building the festival, we have had to make the call to cancel.

"It was not a decision we made lightly, and it’s one that fills our hearts with such sadness we can barely begin to even put a pinch of how we feel into this message."

In the past the north Winchester weekend has featured artists such as Dizzee Rascal, Shy FX and Everything Everything.