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'Rising costs' mean music festival will not return

Oscar WebsterYorkshire
Yorkshire Wildlife Park A woman in a yellow top with red hair and sunglasses on her head stands in a large crowd in front of the main stage at music festival 'Wild Live' at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in DoncasterYorkshire Wildlife Park
Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster has blamed the cost of living crisis and rising costs on the cancellation of its music festival

Yorkshire Wildlife Park has announced its annual two-day music festival, Wild Live, will not be returning next year because it can no longer justify the cost of running it.

Wild Live at the Doncaster attraction will take place for the final time on 29 and 30 August.

The park has blamed rising operational costs and the cost of living crisis as reasons for its cancellation.

Park director Cheryl Williams said: "In previous years, we've seen a good profit margin, but latterly, the costs have gone up exponentially."

She added: "We don't have infrastructure there, so we have to hire everything in.

"And then, of course, we've got the impact of Martyn's Law - the staffing of it has got incredibly expensive."

Martyn's Law was introduced in 2025 as a response to the Manchester Arena attack and requires those responsible for certain premises and events to take measures that reduce vulnerability to terrorist attacks.

Williams said measures such as Martyn's Law were "absolutely right", and should be in place, but that the additional cost of hiring external staff with more extensive training had contributed to the festival's cancellation.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park A group of black and white penguins at Yorkshire Wildlife ParkYorkshire Wildlife Park
Wild Live will take place for the final time on 29 and 30 August

Wild Live is the latest South Yorkshire festival to be discontinued, following Reytfest in Rotherham, which organisers said was cancelled largely due to "poor ticket sales".

Wentfest, a farm festival in Thrybergh near Rotherham, also announced its end because the two main investors had lost "hundreds of thousands over nine years".

A Facebook post on 9 June said: "It's not just us, we can all read, small festivals are pretty much done for."

Yorkshire Wildlife Park said demand for Wild Live is still high, with Saturday tickets nearly sold out.

But Williams said hesitant customers were now less likely to buy tickets for events in advance, leaving organisers uncertain about attendance levels.

"A lot of the smaller, one-off festivals have been calling it a day this year", she said.

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