Organisers of The Big Chill festival have today announced that it has been cancelled for this year. 

The event, which takes place annually at Eastnor Castle Deer Park in Herefordshire and in 2011 featured a headlining performance from Kanye West, was on course to clash with the 2012 London Olympics and the close proximity meant that artist availablity was limited. 

An official statement has been issued by The Big Chill's managing director, Melvin Benn, that explains: "It is with a considerable amount of regret that I have decided not to go ahead with The Big Chill in 2012."

"I looked long and hard late last year at moving the date so it didn't clash with the Olympics but the mix of the festival fans' desire to keep the date and an inability to find an alternative date that works [meant] I plumped for maintaining the existing weekend." 

"Sadly, the artist availability and confirmations we were achieving led me to conclude that I couldn't risk going ahead with the event as an outdoor event this year. Efforts are being made to look to bring a smaller event indoors this year with the anticipation of Big Chill being back outdoors in 2013."