A FOLK festival that has run in Darlington for three decades will not be taking place this year.

The Spring Thing festival has been a firm fixture in Darlington’s music scene for the last 30 years but since it lost its base at the Arts Centre in 2012, it has struggled to attract the crowds.

For the last two years it has been held in the Dolphin Centre, with events also happening in the Market Square and nearby pubs, but after making significant losses for Darlington Folk Club, the organisers have pulled the plug.

Instead, the club is working with the Darlington Arts Festival committee to incorporate a day of folk-themed music and activities on May 16 as part of the festival events running throughout that month.

George Armstrong, chair of the steering group of Darlington Folk Club, said that whilst it was sad to see the Spring Thing go, if a more suitable venue could be found in the future it could be revived.

He said: “To be perfectly honest the Spring Thing has been slipping down the scale over the last few years and when we moved out of the Arts Centre in July three-years-ago, there wasn’t really a suitable musically-orientated venue to put it on.

“Despite everybody’s best efforts – and I would include the council in that, we got a lot of help from the Dolphin Centre staff – it just wasn’t an ideal venue.”

Mr Armstrong added that particularly cold weather also blighted the last two festivals.

The Morris Dancers were too cold to dance for long and the crowds stayed away.

The festival has also been costing the club a lot of money and this year it was deemed unsustainable to continue it.

Mr Armstrong said: “The Spring Thing has never made money, but we lost severely the very first year (out of the Arts Centre) because of the weather.

“Last year we still lost a fair amount and as a small club we have to watch things like that.”

Performers that have previously played at the Spring Thing include musician and Sharpe star John Tams, known for his role as rifleman Hagman in the ITV series, and popular singer/songwriter Pete Abbott.

Despite the loss of the festival, Mr Armstrong said the folk scene was still vibrant in the town and the club has happily settled at The Copper Beech on Neasham Road where it holds regular Thursday night music sessions.