AN all-star extravaganza which had included a guest appearance from choral singer Aled Jones has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

Puzzled organisers of picnic@thewicket say they cannot understand how the line-up failed to generate interest and are devastated that they were forced to pull the plug.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Abba tribute band Voulez Vous and the Upbeat Beatles were all set to perform at the event.

More than 8,000 people in total were originally expected to buy tickets for the concert this Saturday and Sunday at Worcester Cricket Club's New Road ground.

But with just four days to go only 830 tickets had been sold for the Saturday and 770 for the Sunday.

The event which was due to be presented with Saga 105.7FM was the idea of Millennium Music director David Coleman and chairman Stewart Hickman.

"Finally we have, regretfully, had to call it off," said Mr Coleman.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to those people who had been looking forward to the event and those acts booked to appear.

"It is a devastating decision for us to have to take - we've put in such a lot of hard work into planning the weekend over the last eight months and it really was a labour of love."

People who have bought the tickets will get a refund by applying to the box office where they were purchased.

In an Evening News interview at the end of June, Aled Jones, who rose to fame with the 1985 hit Walking in the Air, had said he was looking forward to working with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the event.

Around 3,000 to 4,000 people were expected to come to the show on Saturday, and 5,000 were expected to descend on the cricket ground on Sunday.

Mr Coleman said the reason for the shortage of ticket-sales was a mystery, although sales might have been affected by competition from other similar events in the Midlands over recent weeks.

"We really had a strong line-up, with two first-rate pop tribute bands on the Saturday and on the Sunday Aled Jones, who is a household name, a world-renowned orchestra and a fireworks finale," he said.

"We have many years experience of promoting musical events but are having difficulty understanding why such a wonderful line-up has failed to attract the necessary support."