ORGANISERS of a town centre music festival have vowed to return in 2021.

Haddstock was due to take place in Haddington town centre at the end of May but was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A rearranged date this month had been pencilled in but organisers have now turned their attention to next year.

Rebecca Dover, part of the festival team, said: “It is more just caution and being realistic about the production time.

“The dates we postponed until were September 26 and 27 so we basically had a month of pre-production.

“Even if it opened up today to allow outdoor concerts, it would not be enough time to do everything that we need to do.”

Haddstock launched in 2017, with Aberfeldy, who previously supported REM at Loch Lomond, headlining the festival.

The first festival attracted 2,000 people to Haddington, with pubs, cafes and other venues throughout the town hosting dozens of musicians.

Haddstock returned the following year before taking a break in 2019 with a view to returning earlier this year.

More than 80 acts were set to take part in the festival and Rebecca said that the main disappointment was telling those scheduled to be performing that the event was not taking place this year.

Now, attention turns to next year’s event, with a large amount of planning already done.

Rebecca, who lives in the town, said: “We started planning Haddstock in October 2019 originally with a six-month lead into May.

“We have been making plans since October 2019 and we have a lot in place, a schedule of programming in place, that we can adapt to whatever needs to happen and whatever form of the event takes place.

“We have really pressed the pause button.”

However, all was not lost, with Haddstock at Home taking place earlier this summer.

The lockdown festival was “really well received” and Rebecca added: “We had so many contributors, over 30 musicians made music videos, lockdown music videos, and they were cut together into three films.

“They are really entertaining to watch at home and have a little festival in your living room.”

For more information, go to haddstock.co.uk