There will be no summer picnic concerts at Audley End this summer, English Heritage has revealed.
The three-year contract with the external company appointed to provide the concerts has come to an end, a spokesman for English Heritage said, adding: “despite best efforts English Heritage has been unable to secure an alternative concert provider for this summer.”
General manager at the Uttlesford stately home, Jamie Osborne, said: “We are very disappointed not to be able to host concerts at Audley End House and Gardens this summer.
“But we really hope the concerts can return in 2016 in some shape or form, and we are looking at a number of options which might enable this to happen and help us to re-address the decline in ticket sales.”
In the past Audley End House has attracted big names such as Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, Boyzone star Ronan Keating, The Jam’s Paul Weller and Jools Holland and girl band The Saturdays.
Last year the picnic concerts made the headlines for the wrong reasons when organisers Portal Events Ltd originally said that picnics would be banned inside the arena – a move that prompted an outcry from the public before the decision was ultimately reversed.
Meanwhile, the concerts almost did not go ahead in 2012 after English Heritage failed to agree a contract with then organisers IMG, only for the popular summer event to be saved at the 11th hour when Portal Events stepped in.
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