The Mystery Jets were due to perform

by Chris Price

The First Days of Freedom festival at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park has been cancelled.

Organisers for the event aimed at school and college leavers made a statement on the festival’s Facebook page last night.

The statement promised that all tickets would be refunded for the festival due to take place from Friday, July 15 to Sunday, July 17.

A spooked investor pulling their funding has been cited as the cause for the cancellation of the event due to be headlined by Tinchy Stryder, Professor Green and Mystery Jets.

This was due to concern over the number of ticket sales.

On the festival’s Facebook page discussion board, a post from a user named The First Days of Freedom Festival insisted preparations had been going as planned.

It reads: "Although I doubt all will want to believe it, I can tell you for a fact that this festival was not a scam in any way.

"Up until a few days ago everything was going ahead as planned - admittedly there were certain issues with promotion, which in turn had a knock on effect to todays announcement - but it was all legit!

Click here to read Chris's view on the cancellation

"All the main artists announced were booked and confirmed, as was the venue, security, police arrangements, production etc.

"Everything was taking shape. The video drop from Professor Green, shout out’s from Benga etc should all be enough proof that things were confirmed.

"you don’t realise how much it has affected us…” – statement

"Over half of the event has already been paid for by the investor who agreed to back it - a decision that he reconsidered last weekend.

"Being an investor who has no past experience in the event industry, the slightest 'hiccup' sparked concern resulting in a change of mind.

"Upon the remaining funds being stopped, we were simply unable to run the event to the standard it deserved to be and so left us with no option but to pull the plug."

Port Lympne has had bad luck with festivals in the past.

Red List Live was cancelled in 2009 and the Zoo8 festival in 2008, although it went ahead, was deemed a shambles after acts did not turn up because they had not been paid.

However, last year it hosted the successful Hevy Music Festival.