According to the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) of England, many events scheduled for this summer are in danger of being canceled, while a large part of them have already announced their postponement or cancellation.
More than ¼ of English with an audience of over 5000 people have already been canceled. This has led the AIF to sound the alarm as it predicts that more than 75% of the July and August festivals will suffer the same fate if the government does not take action. Without state support, organizing companies run the risk of even going bankrupt.
“We’re issuing a red alert because many festivals will be reaching the point where they decide whether to go ahead, and we’ve had crisis meetings with many other festivals who have already had to sadly cancel. There will be more to follow.”
According to the roadmap set out by the government, all social distancing measures will be removed by June 21 at the earliest, allowing large scale events to go-ahead for the first time since the pandemic began in March 2020.
However, many organisers are reluctant to sink major costs into planning without an insurance policy in place. 2000 Trees cancelled their 2021 event last month, citing the government’s inaction on insurance as a major reason behind it saying: “although they’ve provided a similar scheme for film & TV, the government have completely let the live music industry down by refusing to back a simple insurance policy.”
source: loudersound
