With less than a week to go only 50 tickets had been sold for the eight hour fiesta of Scottish and Irish bands and dancing.

The sale of at least 300 was essential for the event to break even before any charitable donations could be secured and organisers Mike Gallighan and Deb Barker pulled the plug.

Mrs Barker said it remained a mystery why the advanced sales were so slow, but disputed the hike in ticket price from £10 to £15 for this year was the cause.

"People have travelled from across the country previously and there were people coming up from Grantham who thought it was a snip; they would pay £30 to £40 to see the bands we had lined up."

"I'm sorry for anyone who turned up on Saturday and was left disappointed," she said. "But that's the price for not buying their tickets in advance.

"We hope for a more positive response to Celtic 2009 if we decide to give it another go and we will need to be certain of advance sales."

Did the price put you off going or was it something else? Email your response to jason.hippisley@jpress.co.uk.