ORGANISERS of the Marlow Jazz and Groove Festival have vowed never to hold it in the town again after ugly scenes broke out at last weekend's event when one of the main acts failed to show.

More than 100 furious festival-goers demanded a refund for their £20 tickets when organisers announced that Alexander O'Neal would not be performing on Saturday night, moments before he was due to go on stage in Higginson Park, Marlow.

Police were called to calm the situation as some spectators started hurling abuse at the organisers.

Caren Holden, the festival's co-organiser, said they were so disappointed with the reaction of the jazz fans that they will not return to the town.

She said: 'You could not print what those people said to us. It was very personal and threatening. To be honest I was gobsmacked at some of the things I heard. They were professional people and the things that came out of their mouths were unrepeatable.'

One of the consequences is that the charity the festival backs, Jubilee in Action, which supports street children in the UK, will not receive a welcome cash boost from the weekend's profits.

Miss Holden added: 'One of the saddest things is all the money that we were forced to pay out on the day has meant we do not have enough left over to give to the charity.'

Festival-goers have said they were misled into buying tickets to see Alexander O'Neal because orgainsers did not announce his decision to cancel earlier.

One spectator from Bourne End, who asked not to be named, said: 'I bought my ticket for Alexander O'Neal. I would not have bothered had I known he was not coming.'

However music promoter Linda Harris claimed the organisers did everything above board and replaced O'Neal with Roy Ayers as soon as they knew the singer was not going to show.

She said: 'We got confirmation that O'Neal was not coming just before Ray Gaskins went on stage just before 6pm.'

Miss Harris claimed they delayed the public announcement on the cancellation until Roy Ayers turned up in order not to disappoint fans twice, but informed people on the gate by around 7pm.

She said 'So much abuse was taken but there was nothing more we could do.'