Forthcoming South African festival Into The Castle has been cancelled

Music Goes Further, the company behind forthcoming South African festival Into The Castle, has been forced to cancel the festival, which was set to take place in January 2018.

Earlier this year, the company was forced to cancel a different festival in Sweden, the knock-on effect of that cancellation and the poor performance of another festival in Estonia, which was plagued by bad weather and small crowds, has now seen the parent company collapse, meaning the South African event will no longer take place.

"2017 was an absolute nightmare for us, and still is," reads the statement posted to the festival's Facebook page.

"The initiative is on a total pause at the moment and we are working day and night trying to clean this situation up. If we do not make it, it will be the end of our brands, Into The Valley, Into The Factory and Into The Castle, and also for us as festival organizers. It would be beyond sad but we could just never imagine such a series of large setbacks striking us one after another.

"Our team is shattered and all the money invested in this start-up is gone," the organisers added. "We need to take a big step back in order to be able to come back with new energy in 2018. It is our goal to produce a festival in Europe during 2018, but at this point it is too early to plan for this or make any promises. We keep toiling and praying for things to start moving in the right direction."

Not only has company been forced to cancel all future events, it's asking some artists who've yet to be paid from previous events to waive their fee, which both Larry Heard and Nina Kravis have done and they want other artists to follow suit.

"We hope that more artists will follow their example as this cancellation was really out of our hands. Doing so, and refraining the fee, would be vital and a huge help for us to get back on our feet."

Read the festival organiser's lengthy statement below.