​Albania’s ION Festival announces cancellation of 2025 edition due to rising costs

Albania’s ION Festival has announced that its next edition will not go ahead in 2025 due to rising costs and unsustainable overseas production.

Festival organisers broke the news on Instagram this morning, April 2, writing: “We’re sorry to announce that ION Festival will not take place in 2025.”

“Whilst we’ll always cherish our time on the stunning coast of Albania, the past few years have been challenging for us,” they explained.

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The post cited the “rising cost of international travel and producing events to the standards we aim to deliver”, which have made it “very difficult for our festival to be financially sustainable in its current format”.

ION will not return to its usual location in Dhërmi, south Albania, in 2025, organisers explained, where it goes ahead annually over the course of seven days.

“By no means is this the end of our journey. We are currently looking at new possibilities, including options for a new festival location for 2026,” they added.

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ION Festival first began in 2022 from promoters LWE and Junction 2, and has since welcomed the likes of Batu, Chaos In The CBD, HAAi, Craig Richards, Sofia Kourtesis, Blawan, and many more.

“We hope to be back as soon as we can, better and stronger than ever. To everyone who has supported us over the past three years, we cannot thank you enough. We hope to be reunited with you very soon.”

Read ION Festival's post in full below.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on Twitter