Organisers of The Big Chill festival have cancelled this year's event after struggling to sign up artists to perform in the same month as London's 2012 Olympics.

The music bash usually takes place in Herefordshire in early August, but with events taking place across the country to mark the sporting contest, managing director Melvin Benn has axed the festival.

In a statement, Benn says: "It is with a considerable amount of regret that I have decided not to go ahead with The Big Chill in 2012.

"I looked long and hard late last year at moving the date so it didn't clash with the Olympics but the mix of the festival fans' desire to keep the date and an inability to find an alternative date that works (meant) I plumped for maintaining the existing weekend.

"Sadly, the artist availability and confirmations we were achieving led me to conclude that I couldn't risk going ahead with the event as an outdoor event this year.

"Efforts are being made to look to bring a smaller event indoors this year with the anticipation of Big Chill being back outdoors in 2013."

The Big Chill has previously boasted stars including Kanye West, Massive Attack and Lily Allen as performers.