“You can imagine how disappointing that is for us,” organiser Donna Ballard said.

“We set up when it was still a bit drizzly, through Wednesday and Thursday, but we knew Friday and Saturday were both predicted to be looking good, so we thought, ‘we’ll be right’. 

“But because the ground already was soggy and we got over an inch of rain on Saturday night, we had to make the decision for people to not come on, because there was sheet lightning happening.”

Video by Scott Calvin

Wingham SES was on hand to help make the final decision.

“They responded so beautifully,” Donna said.

“I had the SES on standby from Saturday afternoon because we thought the storm might come.

“They came along about quarter to nine on Saturday night and were there with us, assessing the situation, and at 9.15 they said, ‘look, you’ve got to stop, you’ve got to pull the generators’.

“The unfortunate part was that it was just before Diesel came on, but he was so lovely. 

“He had all his posh gear on ready to take to the stage, and he just took all that off, put his old gear back on, helped us get the drum kits off, covered tarps over things… lovely, lovely man.

“He was very understanding.”

Video by Scott Calvin

Donna recounts an amusing story of how good natured the acts were about the events. 

“The funniest thing was that Round Mountain Girls ended up being the last act on Saturday, so they were going around saying ‘we’ve headlined on Saturday at Akoostik Festival’.

“They’re such funny guys.”

​The committee held an emergency meeting at midnight to discuss the situation and decided they had to cancel the Sunday line-up as well, as the water was ankle-deep backstage.

“You can’t run power, you can’t have that risk,” Donna said.

“However Friday and Saturday were brilliant. Friday was a bigger Friday than we’ve ever had before,” Donna said.

“A highlight for me was just how amazing Saturday felt. It was such a beautiful relaxed day.

“The bar set up this year was amazing, because Coopers sponsored it and it looked incredible.

“Our shade sale looked amazing, even though it was boggy on the show ring itself, which made the numbers who ventured down there a little less, everybody else up on the hill had a great view.

“It was really lovely vibe,” Donna said.

Some of the artists slated to appear on Sunday’s lineup organised free gigs for themselves elsewhere.

“I went to the pub [on Sunday] afternoon, and lovely Sofiella Watts, who was going to play at Akoostik on Sunday, had got in touch with the pub and she ended up doing a little show there at the Top Pub, which was beautiful.”

Meanwhile, Matty Zarb played at the Harrington Hotel, and Mitch King ended up playing “somewhere in Old Bar.”

“I just know that the artists love to play on the stage and have that whole festival experience,” Donna said.

“We should be happy - we delivered two days out of the three, which was still a good thing, and Saturday was AMAZING, but I just feel for the artists that didn’t get to go on stage, because they get so excited about it, as well.”