Despite "three sell-out years", the plug has been pulled on a popular music festival.

Margate's By the Sea event was set to return for the fourth year at the end of September, but organisers have today announced it has been cancelled.

It has been put down to a "recent decrease in the saleable indoor capacity" of Dreamland's Hall By the Sea, where it is held.

The three day festival, which would have been on from September 28 to 30, was headlined by The Libertines last year.

A post on the By the Sea Facebook said: "Due to a recent decrease in the saleable indoor capacity of the Hall By the Sea at Dreamland, we are no longer able to continue to host an indoor By The Sea festival event in the same form as previous years.

"This will not affect the other scheduled/ announced Dreamland events, but unfortunately does for the more bespoke set-up required to make By The Sea what it is.

"This will come into immediate effect, meaning that September's 2018 event is unfortunately no longer going ahead.

"Full refunds will be available to those who have purchased early bird tickets, and we have emailed those affected with details.

"We offer our sincere apologies to all our loyal festival-goers, and hope you understand this was something beyond our control and a very recent development."

But festival organisers have re-assured fans this is not the complete end of the festival.

The post added: "Looking forward, the good news is that we will be moving the next edition of the festival to earlier in the year - specifically to the summer of 2019 - and have some exciting ideas in the works - more to be revealed in due course.

"Following three sell-out years, we are truly looking forward to growing By the Sea into its next phase, utilising this now-fallow year to get head of the game on each and every detail.

"We will be revealing all the details about that soon."

Early bird tickets for this year's festival had been on sale at £69.50 each for the full weekend, but a full refund has been offered.