LIVERPOOL’S annual Shakespeare Festival will not be going ahead this year due to a lack of financial aid.

Its organisers confirmed the cancellation last night after an unsuccessful two-week search to find a last-minute funding partner.

However, they said they hope to bring the event back next year.

Max Rubin, artistic director of theatre company Lodestar, which organises the two week-long festival, said: “It will be back in 2011 but as arts funding becomes even more scarce, we can all expect more casualties before then.

“Projects such as this will become smaller and thinner if they survive at all.

“These are dark times for the arts in the UK.”

As revealed in the Daily Post earlier this month, the event fell under threat of cancellation when Lodestar fell £19,000 short of its £30,000 funding target.

It costs £80,000 to put on the festival – £50,000 of which comes from ticket sales.

This year’s festival, which was due to take place in St George’s Hall from August 3-20 and attract 5,000 to 7,000 people, would have been built around a professional production of Romeo And Juliet.

Around 60 members of the public will now miss out on taking part in three community shows based on Shakespeare’s most famous love story, incorporating theatre, dance and music.