Dance music event Terminal V was due to host 40,000 people this month at Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre but was cancelled due to the “extreme pressure” currently facing the NHS, according to the promoter.

The biannual festival organised by EE Live, and co-founded by Simon McGrath and Derek Martin, was due to take place over two days on Halloween weekend, after being rescheduled several times during lockdown.

In a statement the promoter said the decision was made following a planning meeting with local authority officials and partner agencies: “Given the nature and scale of Terminal V, now the UK’s largest indoor music festival, the event has been deemed to be a higher risk at this time than any other event currently scheduled to go ahead in Scotland.”

EE Live co-founder Derek Martin said, “Almost two years of passion and fierce determination has been poured into the planning and logistics of this event from our internal and extended team. We are loyal to our fanbase and customers, it has been an incredibly tough two years without events, and our aim was to put on a show, unlike any other seen in Scotland to date. It has been really gutting to see thousands in sheer disappointment over this.

“It’s not only heartbreaking to the 40,000 ticket holders and our team but also the almost 2,000 jobs that will be lost over the week, the 10,000+ cancelled hotel rooms and the huge boost to the event supply, hospitality trade and local economy is lost. We have invested heavily in not only bringing international talent to the stage in Scotland but also in the incredible production value of this event.

“To know that a mere five miles along the road, 60,000 fans will be able to watch the Rugby at Murrayfield on the same day as we had Terminal V on, yet our event has being singled out as too high risk sadly given the current climate in Scotland.”

The promoter said the team has been permitted to run a weekend of “smaller alternative events” during the 12 November weekend, with priority tickets available to Terminal V ticket holders. It said further details will be announced soon. Terminal V has been postponed until Easter 2022.

The decision to postpone came one day after the delayed launch of vaccine passports in Scotland, on 1 October.

Terminal V was to become the first Scottish event to use Festicket / Event Genius’ cashless services, EgPay.