Hayling Island's beloved kitesurfing festival cancelled after council bailout is refused

The Kitesurfing Armada Festival, supposed to take place between September 9-11, has been called off by the organisers.

In a statement, the Armada team said this was due to 'licensing issues which were beyond our control'.

However, in an email sent to Havant Borough councillors on August 11, interim chief executive Kim Sawyer said the council advised the organisers to submit their licence application early.

She said: ‘It was cutting it fine to put the application in the middle of the summer to have the licence in place for an event in September.

‘Due to the tight deadlines imposed by the late application, the management team were engaged in discussions with the festival organisers yesterday to see if we could avoid the festival being cancelled.

‘We offered to approach other sponsors and possibly consider up to £10,000 of further funding.

‘After some discussion with the organisers, we reached the conclusion that they would need an injection of £43,000 from Havant Borough Council to make the event work.

‘As chief executive officer I could not recommend that the cabinet invests this level of funds into an event with no guarantee of any return on that investment.’

‘We reluctantly concluded that we would not advise the cabinet to consider this and say the festival organisers will be issuing a cancellation notice today, I am satisfied that the teams within the council have done all they can to support this event.

‘It's a real shame that this event is not able to go ahead.’

The chief executive goes on to say that sponsors withdrew from the event and ticket sales fell as ‘they are simply not attracting the same number of exhibitors'.

Councillor Leah Turner, chairman of the licensing committee said: 'I am aware that the kitesurfing has been cancelled this year, very sad to hear it and obviously hope that we can welcome them back next year.'

The British Kitesurfing Association have confirmed that it still intends to hold the championships on the same weekend.

The event organisers were approached for comment.