Festival cancellations are inevitable without coronavirus insurance, the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has said.
Following the announcement of the UK government s roadmap to reopening the hospitality and live entertainment industries in June, the AIF warned that a number of festivals could be forced to cancel their 2021 events if they did not receive Government-backed insurance and VAT intervention before the end of March.
Earlier this week, after Winchester s Boomtown Fair announced that it had cancelled its 2021 event, directly citing a lack of insurance support from the UK government, CEO of the AIF Paul Reed said that although the festival cancellation was devestating it was not surprising, and further festival cancellations will follow.
UK music festivals say they need government help with insurance Joanna Partridge
Millions of tickets have already been sold and headline acts from Keane to Stormzy are preparing to return to the stage, but the organisers of hundreds of live music festivals planned for this summer are warning that if the government does not follow other European countries and offer to underwrite Covid cancellation insurance, they may be forced to pull the plug.
The national re-opening timetable, largely unchanged since it was announced in February, will allow mass gatherings from late June. But scheduling a post-pandemic event brings significant financial risk, as a local or national spike in coronavirus cases could lead to a last-minute cancellation by public health authorities, which would leave festival organisers with huge losses.
UK festivals 2021: Why events such as Boomtown are cancelling - despite lockdown roadmap going to plan kingdomfm.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kingdomfm.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
England is on track to lift all COVID-19 restrictions as planned on 21st of June, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.
Back in February, the UK Government outlined its roadmap for lifting the coronavirus lockdown in line with the ongoing vaccine rollout. If all goes to plan, it is hoped that on 21st June, all restrictions on social contact will able to be lifted, which means that nightclubs across the country will be able to open their doors for the first time since the beginning of lockdown in March 2020.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday (20th April), the PM said he could see “nothing in the data now that makes me think we are going to have to deviate in any way from the roadmap - cautious but irreversible - that we have set out.”
42 Conservative MPS and live industry body lobby PM to save festival season accessaa.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from accessaa.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.