The City of Colours street art festival in Digbeth has been postponed until 2016 as organisers grapple with a £35,000 shortfall in their operating budget.

The team behind the festival, whose inaugural event took place last September, had hoped to stage it again later this year and last month launched a crowdfunding campaign with Kickstarter to raise £15,000 to contribute towards the overall running costs.

But co-founder Becci Wright said the team was still short of its final budget target by around £35,000, meaning they had taken the decision to cancel the event on September 12 and was now eyeing June 2016.

"Changing the date hasn't been an easy decision but it is vital that we get this right," she said.

"City of Colours is an exciting, innovative and feel-good festival which last year attracted record number of visitors to the Digbeth area.

"With such success comes increased responsibility around planning, safety, funding and of course getting those extra special artists, events and workshops so as many people can get involved as possible.

"This extra time will allow us to develop City of Colours into a bigger, bolder and better festival. Already we have more than 100 street artists involved, with live illustration battles and work on as many large walls as we can find.

"The team have got some new ideas for fundraising which we'll be rolling out soon."

Ms Wright and her partner Karl Paragreen decided to launch City of Colours in Birmingham after being inspired by similar events in other cities.

It is estimated around 9,000 visitors attended the various events and workshops at venues across Digbeth last year with celebrated street artists such as Inkie, Andy Council and Lucy McLauchlan among dozens to take part.

The overwhelming response initially prompted organisers to plan a two-day festival for 2015 following demand from the public but this idea was later shelved with the intention of making this year's one-day festival bigger and better before this latest decision was taken to postpone until 2016.

Between now and June 2016, a calendar of smaller pop-up events in Digbeth is being planned.