A music festival has become the latest victim of coronavirus.

Organisers of Isle Fest, a two-day live tribute show on the Isle of Sheppey, have pulled the plug.

The festival at the Oasis Academy in Sheerness was to have been held in July but today (Monday) Paul Rogers for promoters LD Events said: "It is with the greatest sadness that we are announcing the cancellation of Isle Fest due to the worsening situation with coronavirus across the UK.

"After lengthy discussions between both directors of LD Events it is with a heavy heart we have to take this decision. But the safety and well being of our patrons, the community, the artistes, our suppliers and our team have to be put first at all times."

Only two weeks ago he confidently predicted the festival would still go ahead.

He admitted: "We were positive that we would all be celebrating a feel-good summer party but alas this is not to be as things are changing by the day."

He added: "We’ve put in months of hard work to deliver another incredible festival at our beautiful new site. But we are facing an unprecedented challenge. Right now, we are all working towards protecting our loved ones, friends and family and that should remain the priority."

He said refunds would be issued to all ticket holders.

The company has already abandoned plans to stage two other shows, tributes to Motown and Take That, at the academy but is hoping three more, Forever Jackson on September 26, Abba Magic on November 28 and a Jack and the Beanstalk panto on December 12 will all go ahead.

Mr Rogers said: "Although there was still some time before the festival we were facing the prospect of having to spend a huge outlay on it and just can't take that financial risk.

"Many event and festival organisers are planning to reschedule for later this summer but in all honesty we have no way of knowing if we would have an all-clear for that.

"We also feel that with lots of other rescheduled events we could find ourselves yet again taking a huge gamble and couldn’t guarantee securing the line-up announced."

The festival was planned for July 18 and 19 and would have featured music from Madness, The Specials, Blondie, Take That, Pink and Tina Turner.

For more details of shows visit www.ldevents.co.uk

So far, the Chickenstock folk festival at Stockbury between Sittingbourne and Maidstone on July 23-26 and A New Day Festival at Mount Ephraim near Faversham on August 28-30 have not announced any cancellation plans.

Read more: stories from the Isle of Sheppey here.