A SOLD out food festival has been cancelled after the organisers decided the venue was not suitable days before the event was due to be held.

The Wine Cheese and Chocolate festival was scheduled to take place at Barrowlands Ballroom on Saturday, February 16.

However ticket holders were sent emails saying the event has been pulled and told that refunds will be processed within two weeks.

The organisers of the festival, Mega Events said a decision was taken on Friday to cancel it because it was decided that the venue was not suitable for the 'scale of the event.'

She said: "We would not have have been able to deliver the event to standard we wanted. We realised it was not going to work." She aknowledged that ticket holders might question why they venue was not checked for suitability at an earlier stage.

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One of the firms involved in staging the festival said it was not aware that the event had been pulled.

One ticket holder posted on Facebook: "Starting to think this is a con. Had tickets booked for months, then I receive an email saying it's been cancelled but won't get a refund till two weeks after the event date.

"Sent an email back asking for some proper explanation but have been ignored. Then see tickets are still for sale and nothing on their website about it being cancelled.

"Then see that it's not the first time they have did this. Avoid!!!"

Another event is due to take place in Cheltenham later this month. The organisers also run The Great British Gin Festival and Rum & Reggae Festival.