The Last Dance: Southport Weekender to Shut Down

Twenty-eight years after it began, the organizers behind the world’s largest soulful music event have announced that they’re packing it in.

With “heartfelt sadness,” Alex and Dave said in a statement that it was time to “finally rest the great old warhorse that is the Southport Weekender with dignity and a massive celebration” at the next – and what will turn out to be the last – Southport Weekender this May 8, 9 and 10th.

The statement (reproduced in full below) attributes their decision to end Southport Weekender to numerous factors, but specifically mentions that “times have caught up” and “with rising costs and expectations we just cannot continue beyond this year.”

The statement is a complete surprise to many; among them, the staff here. A profile of Southport Weekender and the team behind it features on the cover of the current issue of 5 Magazine.

What will turn out to be the last Southport Weekender, then, will take place seven weeks from now; the same statement claimes they have “just over 1500 places left” with more information here.

Dear Family,
Weekender 52 the final Southport Weekender – The end of an era, but a huge celebration of 28 years as the World leader in soulful music.

It is with heartfelt sadness that we are writing to you today to inform you that Weekender 52, exactly 7 weeks today at the superlative Butlins Resort in Minehead will in fact be the last.

This is a decision undertaken by ourselves, due to numerous factors too deep to go into and most certainly not brought upon us by the wonderful staff at Butlins, quite the contrary, both our teams have worked tirelessly for 6 years now to make what we, press and more importantly you the customers all thought was the best Weekender in our 28 year history at Weekender 50 last May.

We have always strived and done our best to bring you way beyond the seemingly possible and unexpected with yet another fantastic line up for Weekender 52, but sadly times have caught up and with rising costs and expectations we just cannot continue beyond this year.

Sadly all things eventually run their course and we feel that we have no choice but to finally rest the great old warhorse that is the Southport Weekender with dignity and a massive celebration in 7 weeks time.

Please do not think this decision has been taken lightly, its been absolutely gut wrenching for weeks now. For 28 years its been our lives, so many friends have been made over this time, sadly some no longer with us, a lot of the partners and friends you are with now you would not have met had it not been for the Southport Weekender. Its sad, very sad of course but lets celebrate the good times and at least in 7 weeks we have that opportunity to do so.

Thankfully for those of you who have not secured your places yet, or were undecided we still have just over 1500 places left, which really is not a lot when you consider that 7000 people will be celebrating the very last Southport Weekender, at least with with this early announcement, it gives you one last chance to be a part of this historic occasion before its too late.

The Butlins site is looking unbelievable and we can confidently say that even with the line up as is and we are still working on more additions to an already fabulous live artist line-up the possibility is you will never see such an amazing selection of soulful artists and DJs under one roof for one weekend again.

It’s going to be truly emotional and not just an event not to be missed, but also a movement that has spanned 3 decades now.

We’ll not be in the office for the rest of today as this has as I’m sure you can imagine been a very emotional and sad day for us, but also we will look back with gratitude for the support shown over 28 years and excitement to the amazing celebration we will have in 7 weeks time.

We’ll be back in the office at 10.00am Monday morning getting things ready for the quite unmissable Weekender 52.

If you need a reminder of who is going to be at the party of the century it’s all here

All information is on our website www.southportweekender.co.uk
Much love,