X Music Festival isn’t happening this year

The Tab Cardiff has reason to believe that X Music Festival will not be on this year.

Companies House, who manage the company register, show that four companies, all a variant on the X Festival name, no longer exist. All four have been dissolved since June, three of those since 13th December.

Each of these were owned by either Rhys Freestone or Aran Freestone, who had a prominent online social media presence promoting the festival last year. A number of promoters who have worked for the festival in previous years have not been contacted this year, and the verified X Fest facebook page is inactive, having not posted since 8 June 2016.

“When I was a promoter I got contacted to sell tickets right before Christmas. They normally used to do discounted sales around that time of the year” says Leah, a Journalism, Media, and English third year who has previously worked promoting the festival.

Tickets for this year’s event are not on sale. A listing on Festicket advertises the festival, but doesn’t give the option to buy tickets.

The Tab contacted Cardiff Council, who said there has not yet been an event registered under the X Festival name. Although this alone does not rule out the possibility, it is unusual not to have registered so close to the date.

No more of this

Coopers Field, the section of Bute Park that normally plays host to the event will also be in use on the first weekend of June, when the festival is usually timed to coincide with the end of exam season. Football fans will instead be celebrating the UEFA Champions’ League Final taking place in Cardiff with a fanzone, similar to the one that saw jubilant scenes during Wales’ European Championship run.

The Tab Cardiff contacted both Mr Aran and Rhys Freestone for comment, but received no reply.

X Festival calls itself Wales’ biggest festival, and ran in 2015 and 2016, attracting acts such as Craig David, Annie Mac, and Stormzy to Bute Park on the first weekend of June.

Reacting to the news, Rob, a third year English student, said: “‘What do I have to motivate me through my exams now that the highlight of my summer has been cruelly taken away?”