The Big Chill have announced that their annual outdoor festival will not take place in 2012, citing the Olympic clash as a major reason.

In a statement posted on the Big Chill website, Festival Republic Managing Director Melvin Benn stated: "I looked long and hard late last year at moving the date so it didn’t clash with the Olympics but the mix of the festival fans desire to keep the date and an inability to find an alternative date that works I plumped for maintaining the existing weekend. Sadly, the artist availability and confirmations we were achieving led me to conclude that I couldn’t risk going ahead with the event as an outdoor event this year."

However, the statement did suggest that plans to run the event in 2013 are in place as normal. Benn also suggested that it was possible that The Big Chill might run a smaller indoor event somewhere during 2012.

To read the full statement, click here.