A FESTIVAL in Stirling will not be taking place this year.

The Shindig, formerly the Stirling Fringe Festival, has officially been cancelled today due to a lack of funding.

Festival director Barry McDonald explained: “Since 2013, the festival has been a huge success and has brought visitors from across the UK to Stirling.

“Last year, we decided to rebrand the festival as The Shindig, and concentrate on making it a shorter, Scottish themed festival in one location.

“The Old Town Jail was the ideal location and we created a real festival atmosphere. The place was buzzing all weekend.

“However, running events like this can often be prohibitively costly. As of today, we have no funding or sponsorship in place and there is no sign the situation will change any time soon, so it’s with regret we have to announce there will be no Shindig in 2017.

“We’re all very disappointed that it won’t take place this year, but we have no alternative. Whether it will reappear somewhere else at a future date remains to be seen.”

Last September's event attracted more than 4,000 people from across Scotland and saw a three day extravaganza of family friendly activities with a children's theatre, live music, comedy, cinema, street food and a ceilidh.

It was organised by Stirling Fringe Festival CIC, which has been running it for four years, staging around 200 events throughout town.

Festival bosses wanted to thank all the volunteers who have helped deliver “some spectacular events”.