In news that won't come as a surprise to anyone who caught up with the news yesterday, a number of summer music festivals have officially thrown in the towel and declared themselves as cancelled for 2020.

With the government directive banning mass gatherings of over 5,000 people until at least September , it means that the biggest cultural events of the summer will now not take place.

At the time of writing, All Together Now (which was set to feature Iggy Pop, Lauryn Hill, Goldfrapp and more on August 2nd - 4th) has issued official confirmation to punters that it will not be going ahead in 2020.

Cork's Indiependence Festival (July 31st - August 2nd) has also communicated the same message to patrons, as well as family-friendly festival Kaleidoscope (June 26th - 28th), Donegal's Sea Sessions (June 19th - 21st), Mayo's Saltwater Festival (May 29th - 31st) and Body and Soul (June 19th - 21st). They join rock festival Sunstroke, which was due to hold its inaugural event in Punchestown on June 13th and 14th and which cancelled last week.

Other major festivals, such as Longitude (July 3rd - 5th) and Forbidden Fruit (May 30th - 31st) have not yet made an announcement, but given the situation it is likely that their cancellation is also imminent.

UPDATE 2.20pm: Longitude has now issued a statement confirming its cancellation.

The government directive - which specifies a ban on gatherings on 5,000 or more until September - does leave other questions unanswered, including whether Ireland's biggest festival Electric Picnic (September 4th - 6th) will proceed as planned.

There is also the question of whether small-scale gigs - such as the Live at the Iveagh Gardens gig series, the Trinity Summer Series, or the comparatively small Another Love Story Festival - will take place, given their capacities are less than 5000.

More on this as we have it.