A POPULAR festival of live music and comedy in East Yorkshire has been cancelled this year in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pocklington Arts Centre’s (PAC) fifth Platform Festival was set to take place over five days, from July 9 to 15, at the town’s Old Station.

Saving Grace, featuring legendary Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and fellow vocalist Suzi Dian, were due to perform at the festival.

This year's strong line-up also included top comedian Omid Djalili and indie superstars Shed Seven.

A statement from the PAC team said: "Following the continuing developments in the Covid-19 pandemic, we have taken the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Platform Festival.

"The safety of our audience members, artists, staff, volunteers and wider community has to come first and we did not want to put additional pressure on the health and emergency services at this time.

"Platform is a labour of love, for PAC staff, and being unable to share it with you all in the venue's 20th anniversary year is heartbreaking.

"It is of course the choice we had hoped we wouldn’t have to make; we looked at the possibility of staging the event at a later date in 2020 but the most important thing for us other than your obvious safety, is to give our customers certainty and so we have therefore made the decision to move this year’s festival to July 2021."

The statement added: "If you have already booked your tickets, rest assured these are secured. You will be offered the choice of a refund or the chance to hold onto your tickets for the 2021 edition.

"We plan to carry as much as the programme, as possible, forward and so far, almost all artists have agreed to work with us on this, which is amazing. We will of course keep you updated and we hope to have this all finalised in the coming weeks."

Platform 2021 will take place from July 21 to 27.