THE troubled BL9 Weekender music festival has been postponed, organisers announced last night.

It was originally due to be held at Gigg Lane on June 13 and 14, but was moved to Manchester’s Event City last month after Bury Council said there were "serious deficiencies" in the festival’s safety plan.

Council chiefs said organisers had not formally approached the police or the fire service about the safety arrangements for the festival, adding that there was "woefully inadequate" detail about security, crowd control, parking, emergency access and dispersal of the thousands of people expected to attend the two day event.

No new date has been set for the festival, while ticket holders have been advised to hold onto their tickets for now – though refunds are available.

In a statement issued last night, the BL9 team said: “It is with great sadness that we must announce the postponement of this year’s BL9 Music Weekender which was due to be held at Manchester's Event City over the weekend of June 13/14th until a new date later in the Summer.

“We have put every effort into delivering this festival but due to the recent change in venue this has left us with insufficient time to be able to produce what is effectively an entirely different event, so the difficult decision was taken to make the postponement.

“We apologise it has taken until now to make this decision but our team have worked tirelessly to try and get everything in place to create a spectacular event for everyone involved, but sadly time just wasn't on our side.

“We want all of you that bought tickets to know that, like you, we are completely gutted with this outcome, and we will look to come back bigger and stronger from this.”

The festival’s lineup was due to include the Happy Mondays, Echo & the Bunnymen, Peter Hook and the Light, Razorlight and Diversity.

BL9 Weekender has been organised in collaboration between Bury FC’s Chairman, Stewart Day, and music industry guru Andrew Brooks.