The wine lovers eagerly awaiting this weekend’s wine festival at Valletta’s  Upper Barrakka Gardens were taken by surprise yesterday, as a Facebook event for the highly anticipated affair had been cancelled.

Users who received the notification that the event was cancelled were also surprised, as the organisers, Delicata Winemaker Ltd, had been seen setting up for the festival that same morning.

Contacted by this newspaper, a spokesman for the organisers said that wine festival, which is held at the Valletta gardens every year, is being held as planned.

The organisers told this newspaper that many attendees received the message after an unofficial events page set up by a third party to encourage people to attend was deleted. “The other, unofficial event page was created with the best of intentions by fans of the event, and the winery genuinely appreciates that.

“We can confirm that the mass-mailed message was automatically triggered by Facebook when a well-intended but unofficial events page for the Delicata festival got cancelled.

“But everything is in place and going ahead as planned. Festival-goers can rest assured all performers are still on board and nothing has changed,” the spokesman explained, adding that social media had its drawbacks and such incidents were beyond the organisers’ control.

In its 16th edition, the festival kicks off tonight and will run until Sunday.

The correct Facebook web page for the event is https://www.facebook.com/DelicataWinery/ .