London’s Junction 2 festival has been cancelled due to strike action affecting London’s transport network.
This week’s dance music event has been called off after having its licence revoked by the local council due to the expected impacted of strike action across the capital city.
The two-day festival was due to take place this weekend (June 18-19) at Trent Park, North London. There are overnight strikes on the Central, Jubilee and Victoria lines planned for every Friday and Saturday until the end of June, with a national rail strike planned for later this month.
Junction 2 said in a statement: “We are devastated to announce that due to ongoing strike action taking place across the London Transport Network, and its potential impact on Junction 2 festival-goers, Enfield Council have taken the decision to withdraw Trent Valley Park as the venue for our event.
“We take huge pride in the curation and delivery of our events and with our local partners, we are committed to resolving the transport challenges. After a three-year wait, a weekend expected to run at full capacity and the site build about to commence, we are in disbelief at this decision.”
Organisers conceded that Transport for London (TFL) was unable to guarantee that Cockfosters and its surrounding stations would be adequately staffed this weekend, particularly around the time of the event finishing.
“The council feel that they need a more concrete guarantee, and as such have revoked our right to occupy the site,” organisers added.
Last week, UK music chiefs warned that national rail strikes could have a devastating impact on the live sector’s “fragile” recovery, impacting major events such as the Glastonbury Festival.
The RMT rail union has launched three days of national strike action this month in what will be the biggest dispute across the railway network since 1989. The action – on June 21, 23 and 25 – will see 50,000 railway workers walkout over pay, staffing and safety concerns.
As well as impacting commuters, the strikes will also affect those attending live events, with a Ticketmaster study from 2019 finding that some 37% of people travel by train to festivals.
Paul Reed, the chief executive of the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), said the strike action will impact workers as well as event-goers.
He added: “Rail disruption at this time will negatively affect thousands of other workers and businesses across the festival industry.
“While a lot of attention is focused on disruption to large events, there are numerous small and medium sized independent festivals across the country that will be affected. These festivals are already facing unprecedented challenges and many have made great efforts to incentivise audiences to use public transport to get to their events in order to reduce travel emissions.”