Killiow company is in liquidation

Hayley Westenra had been due to appear at the festival

A company which cancelled a major classical music festival in Cornwall has gone into liquidation.

Camellia MC Productions cancelled the Killiow 2008 festival, which was due to start on 2 September, after only 4,000 tickets out of nearly 15,000 were sold.

The company said it had been advised to go into liquidation and it would soon "notify interested parties as to the company's financial position."

However, it has not clarified what will happen about ticket refunds.

The company will cease to trade Camellia MC Productions

The five-day series of charity fund-raising concerts had been due to take place in a pink 3,000-seat marquee at the Killiow estate near Truro.

But it was cancelled after organisers said there were insufficient funds from sales to pay for the marquee and no alternative could be found.

In a statement, Camellia's directors said that "with regret" they had "approached professional advisors and have been advised to place the company into liquidation."

They added: "This will take a number of weeks to achieve.

"In the meantime, the company will cease to trade. In due course the liquidator will be taking over the affairs of the company and notify interested parties as to the company's financial position."

When the company announced the festival was cancelled, it said the amount of money needed to refund all customers, believed to be about £160,000, was "not in the bank".

Consumer Direct South West said some ticket-buyers might be able to get refunds if they paid for more than £100-worth of goods with their credit card, as it could be covered by their cards' insurance scheme.