Half of UK festivals now cancelled as insurance pleas mount
More than half of UK festivals planned for this summer have now been cancelled due to ongoing uncertainty about coronavirus restrictions.
Industry body the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) today said it estimates that 51 per cent of all festivals with more than 5,000 attendees have been called and warned the sector was at a “real tipping point”.
Calls have been growing for a government-backed insurance scheme to help protect festival organisers from potential cancellations.
MPs this week warned many events faced a serious threat to their survival, adding that ministers were yet to model the cost of underwriting festival indemnity insurance.
Some festivals including Glastonbury announced they would not go ahead as planned earlier this year, while the delay to lockdown easing has sparked further cancellations.
Lake District favourite Kendal Calling and Oxfordshire’s Truck Festival both announced this week that they were no longer going ahead.
A recent survey by the AIF found that just over half of festivals that have not yet been cancelled are still actively planning to go ahead this summer.
However, more than three-quarters of these events said they will either not go ahead or are unsure about going ahead without a government-backed insurance scheme.
The majority of a festival’s costs fall in the month before the event, meaning the sector is now approaching a crunch period.
“This is a milestone that nobody wanted to reach but, unfortunately, it has seemed inevitable for some time now thanks to the government’s inaction and refusal to give organisers any kind of safety net that would allow them to continue to invest in their businesses and the supply chain with confidence,” said AIF chief executive Paul Reed.
“Make no mistake — these cancellations were entirely avoidable, and government must now change its position of reviewing insurance at step four, as it will be far too late for most UK festivals. At this point, every day counts.”
While ministers have not unveiled a blanket insurance scheme for live events, the government is granting support to any events that go ahead as part of its pilot scheme.
Organisers of Latitude today revealed that the festival will go ahead at full capacity in July as part of the event research programme.
Wolf Alice, Bastille and The Chemical Brothers are among the artists set to headline the four-day festival in Suffolk.