Over half of UK festivals with a capacity of at least 50,000 have had to be cancelled due to the government’s rescheduling of when lockdown restrictions will end.
The data has been compiled by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) who sent out a survey to their members. Results also found that those who cancelled are still planning to host their event at a later date.
Originally the UK was planning to end all lockdown restrictions on the 19th of July meaning large scale events and dancefloors could open up again, but due to concern about the Delta variant of COVID-19, the date was pushed back to the 21st of July.
There was also frustration from festival organisers after the UK government’s Events Research Programme delayed publishing its results, as the program was intended to test the viability of safely opening up large scale events. Failure to publish its finding has led to some organisations taking legal action against the government, as those results where intended to help speed up the process of reopening.
Those test event results have now been published, and they show that only 28 people tested positive for COVID out of the 58,000 who attended the nine test events, although it must be noted that only 15% of people who attended actually took a PCR test afterwards.
The AIF also discovered that 78% of those that responded to their survey were unsure whether to go ahead with their events due to a lack of government insurance funding. Many had decided to hold off making plans in the hope that the government would provide a financial safety net if forced to cancel due to COVID. On average, £451,000 has been spent by organisers who plan to run their festival events in 2021.
Paul Reed, the CEO of AIF gave a statement about the survey results. He said, “This is a milestone that nobody wanted to reach but, unfortunately, it has seemed inevitable for some time now thanks to the Government’s inaction and refusal to give organisers any kind of safety net that would allow them to continue to invest in their businesses and the supply chain with confidence. Make no mistake – these cancellations were entirely avoidable, and government must now change its position of reviewing insurance at step 4, as it will be far too late for most UK festivals. At this point, every day counts. If Government has any confidence in July 19 as a terminus date, they will back this now.
Then, Paul Reed continued: “This is an existential issue; the 2021 season is collapsing without decisive Government action and there is a real risk of these festivals not returning.”
H/T: NME
