Fridae

Organisers of the London Mardi Gras have now called in corporate recovery experts to help structure a plan for debt repayments. Attendance figures were down by over 20,000 this year resulting in a �400,000 (US$615,000) deficit.

Organisers have cited the switch to Hackney Marshes as the main reason behind the poor performance of this year's festival. Festival chairman, John Miskelly, said in a statement on its website: "We got it wrong! We hold our hands up! Hackney was the wrong location!"

The 30-year-old event now attracts major sponsorship deals from Ford, Virgin Mobile, Siemens and other blue chip companies.

Organisers now hope that next year's event will be held in Hyde Park and are pinning their hopes on London Mayor Ken Livingstone's pledge for their preferred venue next year.

Chairman of the company looking after Mardi Gras' accounts, Andrew Andronikou, said: "I`m confident there will be another event next year, come rain or shine, and I hope it will be via this vehicle. The community took exception to it not being in central London, transport was a major issue, and it was a very damp day. They had anticipated 50,000-60,000 people but sold about 35,000 tickets."