UK Love Parade festival axed

The event would have brought 250,000 dance fans to Newcastle

This year's UK Love Parade dance festival has been cancelled amid fears over the safety of staging the event.

The announcement came at the end of crisis talks between organisers BBC Radio 1 and Newcastle city council over the granting of an entertainment licence for the event.

Around 250,000 dance fans were due to converge on Newcastle for the festival next weekend, but it was cancelled after the city council failed to resolve outstanding safety issues by Saturday's 1800BST deadline.

The largest free music and dance festival in Europe on Saturday 21 July, would have ploughed an estimated £15m into the city's local economy.

Love Parade may be dead on the streets of Newcastle but we will make every effort to keep its spirit alive on our airwaves and in local clubs and arenas

Andy Parfitt, BBC Radio 1 controller

BBC Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt said on Saturday night: "On behalf of the dance and music community and dance music fans, particularly all those in the North East that have shown us so much support during the past 24 hours, I express my sadness.

"We are going to pull out all the stops to offer something to keep faith with our audience in the North East.

"Love Parade may be dead on the streets of Newcastle but we will make every effort to keep its spirit alive on our airwaves and in local clubs and arenas."

Top DJs booked

The crisis talks centred on the provision of thousands of car parking spaces and traffic management plans, including a park-and-ride system.

Newcastle city council's head of arts and culture, Paul Rubenstein, had maintained that most of the estimated £500,000 costs would be recouped through a park-and-ride scheme and a European regional development grant and civic leaders had agreed it should go ahead.

Up to 400,000 were said to have attended in Leeds

Last year's parade, which took place in Leeds, was attended by up to 400,000 people.

A host of top name DJs were scheduled to appear this year, including Fatboy Slim, Pete Tong, Judge Jules and Sonique.

The annual British event was inspired by the Berlin Love Parade, which has become a legendary techno event since first being held in 1989.