THE flagship arts festival of a town’s events calendar has been cancelled for 2018.

Dalton’s annual Litfest, which was due to take place in November, will not go ahead after organisers failed to secure funding from Arts Council England.

The decision to cancel was made at a recent meeting of the festival’s committee. Organisers plan to change its name in future to ‘Furness Litfest’ and to stage it every two years.