More bad news, after this week's glut of it - this weekend's Beacons festival, due to feature the likes of Factory Floor, Jamie Woon and Tom Vek, has been cancelled due to extremely bad weather.

The festival's organisers have just issued a full statement:

"It is with sincere regret that the organisers of Beacons Festival 2011, due to be staged at Heslaker Farm, Skipton, have had to announce its cancellation.  Due to severe adverse weather, the event site is no longer considered to be safe for a public audience in the opinion of the authorities.

Please do not come to the site, further announcements will be made later today. Please hold on to all tickets and receipts for the time being.

The Beacons team would like to thank all ticket holders for their patience in these unfortunate circumstances."

What with the loss of PIAS Distribution's stock in the warehouse fire earlier this week, and the number of small businesses destroyed in the last few days' riots, this is turning into a bad week for independent ventures.