A MUSIC festival due to take place in South Park, Oxford, this weekend has been cancelled.

Organiser Lance Cowan hoped up to 5,000 people would attend the Zapfest on Saturday but yesterday it emerged it had collapsed due to what were termed "unforeseen circumstances".

People who had bought tickets have been told to go back to the sellers to obtain full refunds.

A message on the festival's website read: "Over much deliberation we have come to this decision.

"This is a decision that has not come lightly as we have spent over a year organising the event and have invested a lot of time and money into it.

"Most of all it is something that we really believed in and wanted it to work."

The festival was the brainchild of Botley DJ Mr Cowan with the aim of promoting up-and-coming local bands.

Acts due to take to the stage had included Youth Movies, Richard Walters, A Silent Film, Stornoway, Witches, Little Fish, Danny and the Champions of the World and Morrison Steam Fayre.

A Silent Film's lead singer Rob Stevenson said: "We're absolutely gutted it's not happening, because we had been very much looking forward to it.

"These things are so complicated to put on, which is probably why we haven't had a festival in South Park for so long but I'm sure that next year it will come back all guns blazing."

Mr Cowan was yesterday unavailable for comment and the reasons for the cancellation have not been made public but the Zapfest website said there were "a few factors" which had forced organisers' hands.

Music fans expressed their disappointment yesterday.

Holly Reading, 22, of Cowley Road, said: "I'm very disappointed. It was something I had been looking forward to for a while."

Vinny Winter, 33, of Didcot, had bought tickets for the event but said he believed its timing, a week after the city's Cowley Road Carnival and the Cornbury Festival at Charlbury and a week before the Truck festival in Steventon, may have had an impact on ticket sales.

He said: "I was going to support local bands and it could have been a good day. I think it was bad timing and I know a lot of people who were planning to go but had not bought a ticket yet."

Nineteen-year-old Claire Duffy, from Witney, was planning to go with friends until she saw the website message. She said: "There were some really good bands I wanted to see and there wasn't really any explanation of why it was cancelled."