THERE will be no Sonisphere Festival 2013 at Knebworth House next summer.

It is the second year running the UK leg of the touring rock and metal event at the Hertfordshire stately home has been axed by promoters.

A tweet from the festival’s official Twitter page today (Friday) said: “Sonisphere UK is not on in 2013, couldn’t make it work.”

The news comes just weeks after festival co-founder Stuart Galbraith told reporters: “We’re working on a bill now, hopefully to announce before Christmas.”

That line-up, however, failed to materialise with suitable headliners not available and the plug has now been pulled on the festival for next summer.

A statement from festival organisers released today said: “Team Sonisphere is sad to say that it has now been confirmed that Sonisphere UK will take a year off in 2013.

“The three Sonisphere Festivals to date at Knebworth in 2009/2010/2011 set a very high standard and indeed 2011 was voted the best festival line-up by the UK Festival Awards.

“We think it is really important that the event only runs when it has a line-up that sets it apart from the competition whilst also carrying a ticket price that allows us to offer real value for money to the music fans.

“We were hoping to do that in 2013 but unfortunately it wasn’t possible to fulfil both aims with the principle problem of there being a lack of available headliners of the calibre of previous festivals at Knebworth.

“We made offers to over a dozen major artists but for various reasons none of these offers lead to securing a strong bill.”

Team Sonisphere’s statement added: “We have already started work on Sonisphere UK 2014 so hope to be able to bring you news about that later next year.”