A second major Hop tu Naa event has been cancelled for this year.

Earlier this week the organisers of Scarefest at Milntown in Ramsey was cancelled due to rising costs and security concerns.

Now, the organisers of the Oie Hounsey festival – due to take place in Castletown – has also fallen by the wayside saying it hadn’t quite got ‘its turnips in a row’.

They say they have not quite managed to get everything in place for the dates pencilled in for the Hop tu Naa fire festival on October 31.

Posting on Facebook, the organisers said: On behalf of the Oie Houney Festival Team we would like to thank the Castletown Commissioners, ELS, Bushys, St Marys On The Sea, MNH and everyone that has supported the drive to get a new festival off the ground.

‘We thought we had all our turnips in a row but we have not managed to get everything in place in time for some dates that are critical to running the festival.

‘Health and Safety and the wellbeing of the performers and audience is paramount and we have been developing new ideas to suit the surroundings but have run out of time so we will not be able to deliver the festival this year but fingers crossed for 2025!’

The event would have been similar to the Shetlands Up Helly Aa with a Viking theme and lots of flames and was due to take place in Castletown Square.

It is the oldest traditional festival on the island and is a combination of the old Celtic New Year “Oie Houney” or Sauin/Samhain and the later Hop-tu-Naa festival or All Hallo’s Eve festival.

The festival has traditionally been celebrated in Peel with a torch light procession ending in Fireworks over the bay but was set to be held in Casteltown for the first time.

This is a double blow for Hop tu Naa celebrations in the island.

After the cancellation Scarefest, production manager Ricky Rooney expressed the team's regret in making the difficult decision, acknowledging that last year’s event faced significant challenges, including incidents of anti-social behaviour and vandalism.

Mr Rooney said: ‘In response, our plans for this year’s event included extensive security enhancements and adjustments to our age policy.

‘Unfortunately, these necessary modifications have resulted in significantly increased costs and will most certainly have limited our target audience.

‘We sincerely apologise to all who were looking forward to this event and thank all of you who have supported us along the way but it simply isn't enough to cover the huge costs of putting the event on.’