A GWENT festival has been forced to cancel its headline acts because of poor ticket sales.

The Raglan Festival has cancelled eighties pop legends Tony Hadley and Go West who were due to perform at Raglan Castle on June 16 and 17.

The festival, now in its eighth year, will continue with some free events organised at the village's community centre in their place.

The festival's treasurer Shirley Hughes said only around 200 tickets had been sold and so the only choice was to cancel these events to make sure the festival can go ahead next year.

She said: "We just couldn't understand it, we can only put it down to the economic recession. We want a festival for 2013 and this would have wiped us out for next year.

Ms Hughes said people travelled from all over the country to watch 10CC perform at last year's festival and that the committee expected something similar.

"Local people have supported it very well but we had expected great numbers and Tony Hadley fans," she said.

Ms Hughes added: "It was a very hard decision for all of us to make but we have put on these new events so it's still live music and very good bands."

People who had already bought tickets for the Tony Hadley and Go West gig, King of the Castle and the No Dancing Dads gigs will be given a full refund.

On June 16 and 17, artists such as Ffred Jones, 4th Street Traffic and the Cor-y-Dreigiau choir will perform at the community centre.

Entry to the centre is free with 499 places available each day on a first come first served basis.

This year's festival starts on June 15 with pupils from Raglan VC Primary School opening the festival with a concert.

Owen Farr will then perform that evening at St Cadoc’s Church as will Tutti Flootey, supported by the Greater Gwent Youth Choir, at Raglan Baptist Chapel.

On June 16, Steven Sproat will return to Raglan Baptist Church supported by Frost at Midnight and Pluck and Squeeze Ceilidh will be the entertainment at the Beaufort Hotel.

For more information and for tickets, see raglan-festival.org