Are Festivals really coming back this summer?

Some of UK’s largest/biggest festivals announce plans to proceed with their events in the summer of 2021, as the government’s roadmap to recovery inspires hopes for our gradual return to normalcy.

Festival Republic, the conglomerate which produces the Reading festival, as well as Latitude and Wireless, has begun selling tickets in droves and recently announced line-ups with major headliners. Following this tedious year of lockdowns, music lovers and young people have been starved of a party, and are eager to redeem their summer. In fact, it was reported that over 170,000 tickets for UK festivals were sold within just 3 days, although this could be attributed to the massive rollover of ticket sales from last year. Alex Deadman, a representative for Sheffield’s Tramlines festival, details the unique position Tramlines and many other festivals find themselves in.

“We’re in an unusual position because we’re nearly sold out and tickets are selling again now because of the expectation. Most of our 2020 ticket buyers chose to keep their tickets which we were really happy about, it was a good marker of faith in us and helped us with finances. We’re not reselling the event from scratch, effectively we started the campaign with most of our tickets sold.”

The Summer festival season, a staple of British culture, is known for promoting lesser-known and smaller artists by offering them opportunities alongside industry heavyweights. LINKING Preserving the events sector is viewed as integral to the advancement of arts and music in the UK, and many argue that the sector requires a boost following 2020, with the live music industry reporting a loss of revenue up to 90%. Many fear for their survival in the event of another barren year. While last year saw inevitable cancellations across the board, 2021’s festival map appears to be a rough patchwork of events, with some major players abandoning their plans for the summer, while others proceed. Deadman describes why iconic events such as Boomtown and Glastonbury may have taken this route.

“I think Boomtown already made a statement saying they wouldn’t survive another year of cancellation. Festivals are a risky business in the best of times, you can have times of heavy losses and are geared up to sustain them but that can only go so far. Every event will be different in terms of how their staff are employed and what their overheads are. That’s why we saw the cancellation from Glastonbury because they need such a long lead, they have people on site for months in advance and if there’s any doubt in that they can’t take that risk.”

A major factor which contributes to the losses sustained by the live music industry is the lack of insurance coverage on event cancellations. This debate between governmental institutions and festival industry figures has been raging for some time now, with organisers stating that reluctance from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to commit to an insurance coverage plan for festivals is one of the largest obstacles currently preventing confidence in event proceedings. Deadman describes the significance of an insurance scheme for the sector.

“I think as an industry it’s really important. Having those insurance policies in place will be a huge benefit to lots of events, particularly more independent events. Tramlines is lucky in that it’s owned by a bigger company now, I think if we were still an independent festival it would be difficult to weather this period,” he says.

“I think as an industry it is really important and I know that the Association for Independent Festivals (AIF) are lobbying strongly for that and there’s people asking whether they can get a commitment for it. I don’t know if it will come but there are people lobbying for it.”

So, if government officials are being cautious in their approach, why are festival organisers publicly announcing their plans to reopen?

Well, it could certainly prove to be the right move. By publicising their plans, they essentially place the DCMS under pressure to provide government-backed insurance policies, which would facilitate further procedures by offering some measure of safety to organisers when planning events. Now that hundreds of thousands of tickets have been sold across the country, cancellations for the following reasons would not be well received, and could subject the DCMS to the runt of widespread public disappointment. By employing this strategy, the live music industry can provoke the government to remove existing roadblocks for festivals.

On the other hand, from a public health perspective, large-scale parties with no restrictions are a fantasy that shouldn’t be entertained. At least, not so soon. The threat of coronavirus remains imminent, and festivals are essentially ‘super-spreader’ events, warranting vast swathes of people in close contact. Furthermore, despite the government having measures in place, with hopes to relax restrictions, it is uncertain whether this will play out in the favour of the music industry. The final decision to green-light festivals is likely to be heavily dependent on the effects of other large events, such as weddings, sports events and conferences, on case rates across the nation. The second-wave of the pandemic, having wreaked havoc all over the country, has only highlighted the unpredictability of circumstances, which comes to show that reopening dates cannot be guaranteed.

Deadman expresses how this cloud of uncertainty has proved challenging in regards to the logistics of planning and organising events.

“When the rates went up in the middle of winter, like the public we weren’t feeling very optimistic. Now, because things seem to be going in the right direction, we are more optimistic. We never stop planning, we’re always in the planning stages- it is a very unusual place to be. We’re not saying we’re definitely going to deliver a festival, we’re saying that we’re definitely trying and hopeful like everybody else,” says Deadman.

“I think people got very excited at the earliest date (21 June) restrictions would be lifted, but there’s lots of “ifs” there and that’s an earliest date but not the latest,” he continues. “I imagine there will be some new regulations or restrictions in place and there’s still not absolute guarantee that we can do the festival at this time.”

While many want a swift return for music festivals, it has to be noted that the likelihood of them occurring is up for debate. The announcements were met with mixed reactions online, as many questioned the safety of going ahead with such large-scale events, while others appeared elated at the prospect of attending a festival after June 21. As we inch closer and closer to the summer, the prospect of attending festivals is still up in the air.