Last week, All Tomorrow's Parties announced that this coming weekend's Animal Collective-curated festival at Minehead would be the last of their Spring season events. In an interview with the 405, Festival boss Barry Hogan has set out the unfortunate but understandable reasons why this is the case: "Yes we seem to have caused a big reaction when we announced this and emotions seem to range from being genuinely upset to also very angry. The decision was not made lightly - we have been wrestling with it for at least 12 months. It was not something we decided on Weds morning and announced that same afternoon. A lot of thought went into it, regardless of what people think. Unfortunately the numbers in May have diminished over the past three years.

"We thought if we did just one event in May it would work but that didn't seem to help much either. I think folks now have too much choice and also in spring it's high season at the holiday resort so the rates are much higher than they are in December. I do realise the weather is bound to be nicer in May but it's not like the venue is outdoors.

"Some suggested we should do one in December and one in May but it's just not cost effective in May any longer unless we raised the ticket price by £25 which I doubt anyone would want to pay. I think ATP has been very fortunate to have lasted so long and in order for us to keep it going we are looking to staging the December line ups for the foreseeable future. We can probably re-introduce the Spring at some point but for now, rather than to keep losing money we are going to make sure we survive the congested festival climate and keep the standard maintained for the next few years."