A Lil mystery of the festival gig that never was

Perhaps is was a case of mistranslation over the Channel, but French fans attending their country's biggest festival were all expecting Lily Allen to turn up last night. She was all over the posters and on the website for Les Vieilles Charrues festival in Brittany — despite the fact that she had apparently never confirmed to appear there.

No-show: Lily Allen

The organisers were all seething backstage at the event, claiming she had left them in the lurch. But Lily's people over here were scratching their heads today as they reckon she was never supposed to be playing there in the first place.

Festival press director Yves Collin said: "We had already printed up all of the flyers with her name on them. Many fans who had already bought tickets were livid when they found out she had cancelled. A lot of people asked for refunds, which we couldn't do as the festival is for charity."

Lily definitely did cancel one gig at the weekend — the Benicassim festival in Spain — although she had the valid excuse of suffering gastroenteritis.

Her spokesperson wrote on her MySpace page over the weekend: "Lily has been diagnosed today as having gastroenteritis by her doctor and has been told she is not fit to fly to Spain. She is very sorry to let fans down and hopes to be back to full strength as soon as possible."

M. Collin was adamant: "Lily's French tour manager emailed us and said she was unable to play the gig for personal reasons."

Lily's spokesman today denied the festival was ever in her tour diary.