UK music festivals urge govt action to save summer events
LONDON: Organisers of British music festivals on Tuesday said the coronavirus pandemic had devastated the industry and warned that events could disappear for good without more government support.
Giving evidence to a UK parliamentary committee, organisers and representatives of the multi-billion pound summer festival industry said a government-backed insurance scheme was crucial to events going ahead in 2021. They also encouraged ministers to set a clear decision-making timetable, to give festivals enough time to prepare for this year’s events.
“If we get as far as Easter (in early April) and we still don’t know that crowds can gather at festivals — however large or small — then we’re in a catastrophic situation,” Steve Heap, of the Association of Festival Organisers, told lawmakers.
He added that a recent survey of members showed nearly half needed to know if 2021 events could go ahead in the first three months of the year.
Sacha Lord, co-founder of the annual Parklife festival in Manchester, northwest England, said organisers as well as freelancers and contractors involved in supply chains could all be ‘wiped out’ without this year’s events.
“If we don’t take place in 2021 I think the vast majority could disappear,” he added.
Existential crisis
Britain — one of the countries worst affected by the global health crisis, with over 75,000 deaths — has seen its £5.8-billion (US$7.9billion, 6.4-billion-euro) music industry hit hard by the pandemic. A series of nationwide lockdowns, the most recent of which was announced on Monday evening, and months of other restrictions to curb the close-contact spread of the virus have shuttered music venues. — AFP