Plans for socially distanced Spiegeltent Festival
FOR the past nine years the Wexford Spiegeltent Festival has lit up Wexford’s quayfront and has been a big hit, both with locals and visitors to the town. As we emerge from the Covid-19 crisis major question marks hang over how to proceed with festivals and concerts and if we will ever be able to enjoy gigs and shows in the same way again.
However, with Ireland due to emerge from the final phase of restrictions in August, the organisers of the festival are feeling optimistic and are already working hard to save the festival from becoming yet another on cancelled list. Among the measures being taken - a bigger tent to allow more floorspace.
‘We are still confident that we’ll have a festival this year,’ said Director of Lantern Presents Brian Byrne. ‘We’ve ordered a bigger tent this year, the Spiegeltent Fortuna, which is a bigger sister tent of the usual Spiegeltent Paradiso. We’re currently working on a plan to have all seated gigs operating within all the social distancing guidelines and recommendations and hopefully we’ll have enough in terms of capacity and ticket sales to make the whole thing viable.’
In years gone by, a heaving Spiegeltent could carry 900 revellers. Clearly, things will be much different this year.
‘We’re liaising with the HSA at the moment on it so we don’t know just yet what kind of drop in capacity we’re looking at,’ Brian said. ‘If we can achieve between one third and 40% of our usual capacity, I think that would be good. Usually, we could have 900 people, so if we can seat 350 people safely for a show, I think that’s what we’re
WE FEEL WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO TRY EVERYTHING WE CAN TO ENSURE THE FESTIVAL GOES AHEAD
working towards. Having said that, everything we’re doing is subject to the approval of the relevant authorities.’
Among the planned changes this year then will be that people will be able to reserve booths and tables rather than buying single tickets. Drinks orders will be made on a specially designed app and delivered to your table, with cashless payment. Toilet facilities will be trebled and there will be measures like temperature checks carried out at the door. As well as this, details will be taken of everyone in attendance should they be needed for contact tracing.
‘Obviously this year it will be very challenging financially,’ Brian acknowledges. ‘ The box office is going to be severely impacted. Apart from everything else though, we feel like we have a responsibility to try everything we can to ensure the festival goes ahead to bring the economic activity to Wexford and the employment and business to hotels and things like that. I think everyone needs a lift and we’re confident we can make it work.’
While ordinarily, Lantern would be busy announcing an array of acts set to take to the Spiegeltent Stage in October, this has obviously been put on the back burner until everything is signed off upon.
‘For the moment, we’re only looking towards Irish based acts,’ he said. ‘We don’t know what way the situation will be with travel from the UK etc.
However, I think the profile of the acts we’ve been in contact with is really high. With Electric Picnic now gone, the October Bank Holiday weekend is the next up. There are acts out there that are anxious to get back to work and that have albums and EPs to promote and get out there. As well as that, I think we’ve built up a solid reputation in the industry over the past nine years, so bringing these big acts to Wexford is an easy sell.’
‘ The way things are at the moment, I think we’ll announce the whole line-up at the same time at the end of the summer and explain how things will work and how we’ll be looking after people and the precautions we’re taking. There’s no doubt this year will be different, but we’re still hopeful that it can be one of the best years of the festival yet.’
Things are less certain for the newly christened Sásta Festival, which had been slated to take over Wexford’s quayfront in July. Focusing on comedy, food and well-being, Lantern were hopeful of giving the festival its launch this year. While July is now off the table, Brian says that it’s still a possibility that it could go ahead in August.
‘Strangely enough, I think things are a little less clear with outdoor events,’ he said. ‘We are still in discussions with the relevant bodies on this. It’s a festival that we can turn around very quickly and the acts are kind of on standby for it. The final restrictions are due to be lifted on August 10 so we’re provisionally looking at that weekend of August 15 and 16 for it, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.’