Music festivals face ‘grave future’ if Covid causes season to be lost again
The UK’S music festival landscape, including Scotland’ s TRNSMT, faces a“grave” future if the 2021 season is cancelled, organisers have warned.
Sacha Lord, co -founder of Manchester's Parklife , said workers would permanently transition to other industries and smaller festivals would disappear in the wake of more cancellations amid Covid-19.
Anna Wade, communications and strategy director of Boomtown Fair – held on the Matterley Estate near Winchester – said large and grassroots music events would be in "absolutely dire straits" financially if restrictions remained by summer.
They were speaking to MPS examining the plight of music festivals in the UK after Covid-19 restrictions led to widespread cancellations in 2020, including Glastonbury and TRNSMT, due to be held at Glasgow Green from July 9-11.
The digital, culture, media and sport committee was looking at how government policy could support festivals due to take place this coming summer.
Lord said coronavirus had “absolutely decimated” his festival, its suppliers and freelance staff.
Park life festival, which attracts some 75,000 attendees,h as been delayed until September 2021 and more than 250 artists and suppliers have already been booked. “If we have got another year like 2020, we have got serious problems,” Lord said of the risk involved in making those commitments.
Some 4.9 million people attended a festival in the UK in 2018, with festivals estimated to have generated £1.76 billion in gross value added last year. And industry bodies, in cluding UK Music and the Help Musicians charity, have touted festivals as an essential stepping stone for future stars in developing an audience.
Last month, Germany announced a£2.3bn event cancellation fund and other countries have introduced measures to encourage festivals. Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis previously told fans to expect the Somerset event to make an announce - ment in the coming weeks.