The Angel Canal Festival, which is free to attend, attracts large numbers of visitors every year

A WATERSIDE festival which attracts thousands of people each year has had the plug pulled after organisers ran out of cash.

The “postponement” of the Angel Canal ­Festival – often seen as the “last hurrah” of the summer holidays in Islington before children go back to school in September – has led to calls for new backers and volunteers to come forward to save it.

The Canal and Riverside Trust (CRT) said it would no longer be staging the free family-friendly festival, which has always been a ­celebration of the City Basin and the enduring popularity of the boat club.

Sasha Kier, who organised the festival with Beryl Windsor for 21 years before handing it over to the CRT, said: “I think it’s a festival which should arise out of the community. I think if it genuinely is going to be a community festival it should come from the bottom up and not be a top-down thing.”

She added: “It’s how you get together a new group – it’s going to be very difficult for this year. Those bodies that benefit from the festival need to think about how we can get the ball rolling. It should be just like a village fete but in the centre of the city, and it should bring together all the local elements of the local community: rich, poor, all types of diversity, [and] people who live and work in the area, to celebrate the water space and also have a sense they belong to a lovely neighbourhood of friends and like-minded people, no matter what their background is. It’s fun and very rewarding to volunteer.”

Ms Kier and Windsor handed over the running of the festival when both women became ill. Ms Windsor died in 2020.

Ros Daniels, CRT London director, said: “The difficult decision to postpone this year’s Angel Canal Festival hasn’t been taken lightly, and is part of a wider review of what we are able to do as a charity in challenging times.

“Although supported by thousands of volunteers, donors and boaters, the economic climate, together with continuing real-terms cut in the Trust’s Government funding, has forced our charity to focus all available funds on the core purpose of protecting and preserving the canal network.”

It had originally been established as a festival by Crystal Hale, a legendary figure in the area who secured the preservation of the canal after the CRT’s predecessors British Waterways lost their bid to turn the City Road basin into a car park.

The festival grew out of what was initially just a very well-attended garden party at her home in Noel Road, which spilled out into the canalside. Its 50th anniversary will be reached in 2025.

Labour councillor Martin Klute has criticised the CRT for not seeking assistance from Islington Council before making their shock announcement.

He encouraged people to come forward to offer support for “a more cut-down festival” this year, adding: “It seems short-sighted and a bit petulant to say it’s not happening without speaking to anyone.”

Ian Shacklock, chair of Friends of Regent’s Canal, said he could “smell disaster” as soon as the CRT took over the running of the festival, which turned the event from something run by “self-motivated volunteers” to something “corporate” that was “diluted, dumbed down” and “a shadow of its former self”.

“Beryl would have been devastated but not surprised” at the news it had been cancelled, he added, and called for “a new generation of volunteers” to rise up.

Eric Sorensen, chair of the board at Islington Boat Club, which closed last year but is set to reopen in the summer with new board members, said it would be a “crying shame” if the festival, a “very important institution”, could not be salvaged.

“We’re in the early stages of planning something more community-led and less elaborate, but … we’ve only just heard about CRT not being able to do this.”

He added they need to find volunteers with “experience in organising these things and the time, energy and skills to put it together”.