Following the recent news that Wonky Town will not go ahead this year amid mounting financial pressures, Express spoke to two of the island’s well-known events organisers – and Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel – about the raft of local entertainment still on the cards in 2026.
In a post on social media, the Wonky Factory team confirmed it had taken the “difficult decision” not to proceed with the two-day festival this summer, after being “unable to make the finances stack up in a way that would allow us to deliver a credible, high-quality line-up at an affordable ticket price”.
Following the announcement, J-P Anquetil told Express that pushing Wonky Town back to 2027 would help to get “all my ducks in a row”.
He explained: “A few things hadn’t quite come together and I thought, you know what, it’s not quite stacking up – let’s leave it till next year and I can try and generate some more support financially.”
Mr Anquetil acknowledged the challenges in delivering larger festivals in Jersey, but also pointed out that “we’ve got some really good smaller events coming up”.
He noted that one of them is the upcoming “secret boiler room”, which will see attendees notified of a route to a “mystery venue” on the day.
“We are trying to make things really interesting; we just don’t want to do regular things,” Mr Anquetil added.
Weekender festival organiser Warren Le Sueur, who is also behind Lib in the Square as well as the Out-There and Up-There events, said it was “sad to see” that Wonky Town would not take place this year.
But he stressed that there was still a range of “fantastic” events being put on in the island.
“It’s not just us who do stuff,” added Mr Le Sueur. “There’s a varied amount of events that are quite diverse across the offering.”
He also encouraged islanders to buy event tickets as early as possible, noting that this helped to give organisers “confidence that what they are doing is definitely the right direction”.
Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel, who told Express he already had his tickets for this year’s Lib in the Square, said: “It’s a real shame that Wonky Town can’t go ahead this year, although I also appreciate J-P taking a responsible attitude towards this year and saying actually, we will be better positioned to go ahead next year if we take a break this year.”
Deputy Morel added: “One thing I would really like to promote in Jersey is these sorts of dance events, because I think they work really well.
“We have got some fabulous venues. Wonky Town was in Fort Regent, it was a great venue, Lib in the Square at the Royal Square is superb, such an unusual venue and is fantastic.
“Anything we can do to try to make it easier for these events to take place I think would be really helpful.”
