A drum and bass festival due to be held at a Kent airport has been postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Organises of Connected Festival say they have cancelled this year's event to "ensure the safety and wellbeing of fans and loyal customers".

It was due to go ahead at Lydd Airport, on Romney Marsh, on September 12 with music playing for 12 hours straight from midday to midnight and across five stages.

But it has now been moved to May 1, next year, with the team promising to "come back bigger and better".

A spokesman for Connected Festival said: "In the midst of the current Covid-19 pandemic, the decision was taken to postpone this year’s event to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our fans and loyal customer base, whilst also ensuring the integrity of the brand and its survival were guaranteed beyond 2020."

Bosses say tickets for this year's event never went on sale.

The spokesman added: "We also felt more comfortable putting the needs of our customers first by not going on sale, to ensure people weren’t spending unnecessarily on events that a couple of months ago were in the balance - we would rather our customers be comfortable getting through this pandemic and we are still planning to launch tickets for our 2021 programme later this year."

The first ever Connected Festival took place at the airport overnight in October last year and saw 6,000 people party for 12 hours from 6pm to 6am the next day.

More than 100 acts from the world of dance music and drum and base performed over five stages, one which was positioned in the airport's new hanger.

Performances came from So Solid Crew, Andy C, Wilkinson, Problem Central and many more.

Food outlets were also positioned across the runway while performers, such as fire eaters, break dancers and stilt walkers weaved among crowds throughout the night.

For the planned festival in September, several changes were to be put in place, including holding it in the day rather than all through the night.

It was also brought forward a month from October in the hope revellers would enjoy some sunshine.

Bosses say plans are now underway for the May 2021 event.

The spokesman said: "The postponement has also given us the opportunity to review every aspect of the event to ensure we can come back bigger and better.

"With a new team on board, the planning process has been ongoing for the past few months and we are confident of delivering a successful event with some big names in the pipeline and more to be announced over the coming months, paying homage to the original raves and events over 20 years ago and bringing both the older and newer generations of festival goers together.

"We are also currently working with our ticket company Skiddle to ensure we give our fan base the best deals possible including the potential for payment plans and other packages and whilst we finalise all the essential behind the scenes work, we will continue to monitor the Covid-19 situation alongside government advice, remaining hopeful about running next years events."

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