The Macclesfield Festival has been postponed until next year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a post on Facebook, organisers of the festival said: "It is with heavy hearts that we have been forced to postpone Macclesfield Festival 2020. The safety of our customers is paramount and as such the decision was one which was made for us.

"We have rescheduled the event to the same weekend next year which will be July 17th 2021. The line up and entire event will remain the same but moved back one year, hopefully after we have totally beaten covid-19 for good."

People who have bought earlybird tickets will be able to use them at next year's event.

The organisers added: "At least we can really look forward to a covid free Maccfest next year. This is the only decision we could make under these extreme circumstances. Thank you for the support and understanding and we will look forward to seeing you out the other side in 2021."

The festival first took place in 2017 and has been popular with families in the area, attracting crowds of over 7,500.

Guidelines released today by the government on how the lockdown measures are to be eased in the coming weeks and months did not include allowing public gatherings by 18th July, when the festival was due to take place.