Kite festival at Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire, is postponed until 2021

Kite Festival was due to take place at Kirtlington Park, near Bicester, from June 12-14.

The so-called festival of music and ideas, was set to feature art-pop icon Grace Jones, jazz star Gregory Porter, film director Richard Curtis, writers Philip Pullman and Jon Ronson, and politicians David Milliband and Alastair Campbell.

Organisers have this afternoon announced it will be postponed to June 2021, admitting their attempt to debate the state of society had been eclipsed by an even bigger “conversation”.

They said: “We created Kite to bring people together, in a anew environment, to debate the major forces shaping the world we live in.

“Over the past year, as our team has gathered to discuss what these topics might be, we never envisaged our event would sit so poignantly amidst perhaps the biggest conversation of our lifetime.

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“After careful consideration, the evolving situation around Covid-19 has led us to the decision to postpone Kite’s inaugural edition until 11th-13th June 2021. The safety of attendees, founders, artists speakers and our team must, of course, be our top priority.

“All tickets will be automatically transferable to the 2021 event.

“On behalf of everyone at Kite, we thank you for your support so far, We’re looking forward to starting the conversation with you soon.”

The event was being organised by the team from Love Supreme and the news website Tortoise.

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Also due to appear were musicians Mavis Staples, Sam Lee, Julien Chang, Penguin Cafe, This is the Kit, Sasha Keable, Whyte Horses, rapper Dizraeli, and Nigerian artist Seun Kuti.

Politicians Amber Rudd, Rory Stewart and David Lammy; cook Thomasina Miers; Journalists Paul Greengrass, Helen Lewis, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Marina Hyde; screenwriter Jez Butterworth; psychoanalyst Susie Orbach; and broadcaster Emma Freud were set to complete the line-up.