Llangollen International Eisteddfod axes concert after 'extraordinary medical incident'

A major music festival has cancelled a concert following an "extraordinary medical incident" this evening.

Llangollen International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, North Wales, evacuated people from the festival and cancelled a concert as organisers said medical teams were dealing with the incident. The event was for the Uniting Nations: One World Concert. Organisers said that the event still intended to run as normal tomorrow morning despite today's incident and cancellation.

A statement from the Llangollen International Eisteddfod said: "Due to an extraordinary medical incident - tonight's event has been cancelled. We want to thank our own medical teams who are managing the extraordinary medical incident.

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"We are working with the Ambulance services and medical teams managing the incident giving them the support necessary. The Llangollen International Eisteddfod intends to run as normal from 9am tomorrow, but this will be based on the expert medical advice we receive. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Then in a further update this evening, the festival confirmed the incident was a flu-like outbreak which affected "multiple people" with similar symptoms. The Welsh Ambulance Service declared it an extraordinary incident following Public Health Wales advice.

They added: "Further to the previous statement, we can confirm that following the declaration of an extraordinary incident by the Welsh Ambulance Service, following Public Health Wales advice - the incident related to a flu-like outbreak and related to multiple people with similar symptoms.

"The extraordinary incident was called by the Welsh Ambulance Service due to the number of people who presented ill at one time. The Llangollen International Eisteddfod takes the safety of its audience, competitors, performers and volunteers extremely seriously. Therefore, following advice - we were forced to cancel an event in this way for the first time in our history.

"We are pleased to report our site has been cleared to reopen tomorrow at 9am, as we continue to welcome the world to Wales. We'd like to thank our staff, medical staff and our volunteers for their swift response this evening."

The music festival is hosted over six days and sees singers and dancers from around the world compete in over 20 competitions. It has a huge attendance of over 50,000 over the event and previous performers have included Luciano Pavarotti, Julian Lloyd Webber and Katherine Jenkins, Wales Online reports.