We are truly heartbroken to have to make this call, but unfortunately, like the 50 (and counting!) other festivals that have had to cancel so far this year alone, Starry Village – especially as a tiny event with no corporate backing or sponsorship – has simply not been able to survive the perfect storm of a cost of living crisis, hitting so swiftly on the heels of a global pandemic.
Rising inflation has led to production costs drastically spiralling – and the cost of living crisis has had a impact on ticket sales, as folks struggle to make ends meet. Unfortunately, this has led to the very difficult and sad decision that it is just not viable for Starry Village to continue.
If you have a ticket for Starry Village this year – firstly, thank you for supporting us, and we’re so deeply sorry to have to disappoint you.
You have two options of how to proceed:
- Transfer your booking (all adult tickets, kids tickets, and any car passes or campervan passes*) to Shambala Festival – our main event. Tickets for Shambala have a higher price point than Starry Village tickets but bearing in mind the circumstances, we’re happy to transfer your bookings at no extra cost. Shambala takes place near Market Harborough on 22-25th August and is an absolutely wonderful, award-winning experience for families – you can find out more about Shambala, here. Tickets for Shambala are running very low so whilst we have ringfenced some of the last remaining Shambala tickets, for the Starry Village community, there is a deadline of 19th July 2024 to make this choice.
- Claim a full refund (minus booking fees)
All our Starry Village 2024 ticket buyers have been sent an email with further information on both options (as well as information on refunds for any additional extras such as glamping tents, massages etc) – so please check your inboxes – this email will have been sent to the ‘lead booker’ – eg the person who booked your Starry Village tickets.
(*Important note for campervan bookers, wishing to transfer to Shambala – please note your campervan pitch would be in the general campervan field, rather than the family campervan field, as the family field is at full capacity for 2024)
We’re afraid this is goodbye…
Moving forward, we have made the difficult decision that this will be the end of the road for Starry Village. We feel deeply lucky that, in the current climate, our larger event, Shambala, remains in a solid position, and therefore it seems prudent to focus our team’s efforts, talents and time, in nurturing what is working, as well as exploring new event concepts and ideas that better fit these challenging times, and the changing needs of today’s audiences.
With that in mind, we want to thank every single person who has played a part in Starry Skies/Starry Village over the last decade – our incredible crew community, our suppliers, the amazing artists who have performed on our stages, the workshop holders, volunteers and facilitators (and the lovely family of pigs) but most of all, to all the families who have come along to play, create and run wild together in the Herefordshire countryside.
The memories we have built together over the past 10 years will last a lifetime ?
Thank you for being a part of it.
Team Starry x
