Vault Festival cancels 2024 plans due to lack of funding

The biggest arts festival in England will not go ahead in 2024 after it did not secure the necessary funding.

The Vault Festival took place in the vaults below Waterloo Station from 2012 until 2023, with breaks during the pandemic, and was touted as London’s answer to the Edinburgh Fringe. 

Through its unique business model of funding shows for early-career artists through ticket sales, it helped launch the careers of thousands of actors and writers and was seen as a vital lifeline for creatives.

The festival was kicked out of its Waterloo home last year after landlords prioritised commercial work. Founders announced they had found a permanent venue in SE1 to open in later this year, but funding has fallen through. 

“We are devastated, we’re proud, and we’re grieving,” said CEO, Director and Co-founder Andy George. 

“12 years ago, we set out with a mission to make the creative industries of the UK more diverse, more experimental, more inclusive, more joyful, and more embracing of the talents and ideas that emerging artists have to offer. I feel extremely proud that we’ve achieved that mission through our work and that we are leaving the creative industry in a different place to how we found it.”

George added he felt the impact of the loss of Vault Festival “will be felt across the entire UK creative sector for years to come.” 

Imelda Staunton, the cast of Bridgerton and Emma Corrin were some of the A-List actors who spoke out to try and save the festival when it lost its Waterloo home last year.

Vault premiered new work by burgeoning writers, and many of the shows workshopped there went on to achieve commercial success. The stage show Anna X began life at Vault Festival and landed a West End transfer starring Emma Corrin, and the play No ID went from Vault to the Royal Court theatre in 2023. There is a television adaptation in the works.

It is estimated that almost half a million people have passed through the Vault Festival since its inception. The arts contributed £109bn to the UK economy in 2021, equivalent to 5.6 per cent of the UK economy that year, according to the Lords Library.