Fleetwood Festival of Transport and SpareParts event postponed

The Fleetwood Festival of Transport, known locally as Tram Sunday, was due to go ahead on Sunday July 19, along with another element on the day, the SpareParts Festival.

Organisers say the twin spectacles will no longer be taking place on that date but do not know at this point if or when they will be staged at a later time this year.

Tram Sunday itself has been running for almost 35 years and has never been cancelled before, and features a huge selection of classic cars and vintage buses, trams and bikes, attracting thousands of people to the town each year.

The SpareParts Festival, organised by Blackpool-based art group LeftCoast, is a more recent addition which has greatly expanded the big day and added an element of eccentricity and spectacular performance art to the overall spectacle.

It has been calculated that the overall event brings up to £3million to the Fleetwood economy each year.

SpareParts is also part of two other transport festivals, in Crewe and Sandbach.

But the ongoing situation with the lockdown has given organisers of both elements no choice but to pull the events in July, despite them being more than three months away.

One of the coordinators and directors of Tram Sunday, Dave Carlos, said: "It is with huge regret that the directors of Fleetwood Festival of Transport have decided that the 2020 event, also known as Tram Sunday, will be postponed to a date to be announced in the future.

"We are currently contacting all our stakeholders to communicate that the event scheduled for 19 July 2020 will not now take place.

“The uncertainty of the current situation and the problems of planning for an event which may not take place, plus the advice from government, national and local, made this decision inevitable.

"The SpareParts Festival, an initiative of Fleetwood Festival of Transport, has also been postponed in all locations.

"If you need to contact us please use this email address: [email protected]. We appreciate your support always and hope that you will continue to support the festival in the future."

A spokesman for SpareParts Festival added: "We regret to announce that all SpareParts Festivals in 2020 will be postponed to a future date, yet to be decided.

"SpareParts Festivals are delivered in each location as part of a wider festival, and following announcements by national and local government – and in times of such unprecedented uncertainty – our partner festivals have had to take the decision that their festivals will not be going ahead.

"SpareParts remains fully committed to looking after our communities, artists, partners and staff and we fully support all our partners in their decisions to postpone".

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