Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster has confirmed that its annual music festival, Wild Live, will not return after this year, citing rising operational costs and the wider cost of living crisis. The two-day event, held at the South Yorkshire attraction, will take place for the final time on 29 and 30 August. Park director Cheryl Williams said profit margins that were once healthy have been eroded as expenses have "gone up exponentially", making the festival unsustainable to continue.

Williams explained that because the site lacks permanent event infrastructure, organisers must hire everything in, and that compliance with Martyn's Law, introduced in 2025 following the Manchester Arena attack, has significantly increased staffing costs due to the need for more extensively trained security personnel. She said such safety measures were "absolutely right" but had still contributed to the decision. Wild Live joins other South Yorkshire festivals to be scrapped this year, including Reytfest in Rotherham, cancelled over poor ticket sales, and Wentfest near Rotherham, whose investors lost hundreds of thousands of pounds over nine years. Despite Saturday tickets nearly selling out, Williams noted that customers are increasingly reluctant to book in advance, making future attendance harder to predict.