A NOUGHTIES pop legend has broken his silence after one of his cancelled performances left fans devastated – by announcing a FREE gig going ahead tomorrow tomorrow.
Gareth Gates was due sing on stage at the Challenge Festival in Bradford over the weekend – but it was cancelled due to “safety concerns”.
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The singer – who has sold over 3.5 million records in the UK – took to Instagram earlier today to speak out to his fans about the decision.
Gareth will now be performing at live music venue Tapestry Arts in Bradford instead – and fans won’t have to pay a penny.
He said on his Instagram story: “I’m gutted Challenge Festival is cancelled this weekend.
“I was looking forward to playing in front of my home crowd.
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“I’ve been told it was out of the organiser’s hands.
“I have however decided to do a free concert tomorrow night at @tapestryarts for those who bought tickets to the Big Pop festival.
“To claim your free ticket please email @chair@saltairefestival.co.uk.”
Gareth was supposed to headline at the festival, taking place at Mrytle Park in market town Bingley.
The likes of Peter Andre was also supposed to perform at the event.
The organisers shared the devastating news on Instagram: “We have had to cancel The Challenge Festival over safety concerns.
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“Another great event cancelled because of unrealistic demands such as fencing a woodland area in case of fire amongst many others.
“We will put more details up later, totally gutted, 1000s of hours and thousands of pounds wasted.”
Organiser Ian Andrews-Swailes said of the cancelled festival: “I’m really gutted. This was going to be a big community event for Bingley and Myrtle Park and setting a template for community events for the Bradford City of Culture 2025.
“Challenge has taken hundreds of hours to prepare and cost me thousands of my own personal money. I was bankrolling the festival this year.
“I put so much effort into this effort for Bradford, for nothing. It’s gut-wrenching.“All I wanted to do was to give Bingley something they could be proud of and run for themselves in the future.
“The whole of the community of Bingley was wanting this and will be absolutely gutted.
“Bradford receives a lot of negative press and I felt it was important to showcase the positive aspects of the city and district, particularly in the run-up to Bradford 2025.”
It comes weeks after Gareth shared some rarely seen snaps of his daughter Missy on her 15th birthday.
The pop icon shares the teen with ex-wife Suzanne Mole.
Gareth captioned the post: ” “Happy Birthday to my beautiful little lady @missygates_x.”
Gareth shot to fame on ITV’s singing competition Pop Idol.
He placed second behind winner Will Young.
