Organisers of the annual Mendip Rocks festival that celebrates the geology of the Mendip Hills have postponed this year's events that were due to take place in September and October.

Although the events are much later in the year, the organisers have made the decision now to save any confusion.

Each organisation behind the festival is coping with different priorities at present. Staff at the Somerset Earth Science Centre in Stoke St Michael are all furloughed, volunteers from the Mendip Society have personal situations to deal with and the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Unit is focusing on managing visitor pressure.

The Mendip Rocks programme has run for the last eight years attracting thousands of people to lots of events in the Shepton Mallet area that get people closer to the foundations of Mendip.

There has been tours of working quarries, armchair caving, art workshops, big family events and lots of walks with interesting experts.

Jim Hardcastle of the Mendip Hills AONB Unit said: "This has clearly been a very unusual start to the year and all the partners would be well underway planning this year's event.

"As we have more then 30 events that form the programme it takes a lot of planning and we can't just rush at it later in the year. We look forward to a whole new series of events next year."