Will Coronavirus lead to the cancellation of Glastonbury?

[jparx]

I just don’t see them cancelling three months out unless they’re forced to by government restrictions. If they’re forced to cancel later in the Spring they will have an insurance claim to cover some of the losses, and they may wait for acts to drop out as well so they can recoup on deposits. Again, nothing has changed since Emily’s statement which said they are planning for the event.

We’ll see.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

7 hours ago, ModernMan said:

Seems a bit bloody harsh to get a downvote for this @Deaf Nobby Burton! 

Reading back I must have meant to upvote... too much to drink last night. Have swapped downvote for upvote 

[Sack truck]

Would love to know what bass numbers now the modellers are working from. It’s obviously much more far spread than the limited testing shows. They will know the growth rate. Having both could at least indicate when it was all going to peak etc. Given low numbers reported, the assumption is it will be a while before it is over in reality it could still be that short sharp shock. Bumpy road ahead I’m the short term I think, does make it difficult for Glastonbury to make a call with a lack of real-time accurate info (bar hospital admissions etc and working back)

[Wooderson]

4 minutes ago, Sack truck said:

Would love to know what bass numbers now the modellers are working from. It’s obviously much more far spread than the limited testing shows. They will know the growth rate. Having both could at least indicate when it was all going to peak etc. Given low numbers reported, the assumption is it will be a while before it is over in reality it could still be that short sharp shock. Bumpy road ahead I’m the short term I think, does make it difficult for Glastonbury to make a call with a lack of real-time accurate info (bar hospital admissions etc and working back)

"Short sharp shock" is many 10s of 1000s dead. 100s of 1000s even. 

Keep thinking thats gonna lead to people singing Hey Jude in June if it gets you thru howevvs.

[arcade fireman]

7 minutes ago, Benja100 said:

My sister works in the field of government policy in this specific area and is relatively busy at the moment as you can imagine. 

What is changing is that as every day goes by they are spending and committed to more spend to set the site up that is not cancelable. The longer they leave it the more money wasted if cancelled. And police resource is potentially going to be very stretched if we end up like Italy is presently, a Festival is not the policing priority much as they aren’t really that needed at glasto it is a licensing condition that may be hard to meet. 
 

There is absolutely no chance it is going ahead in my opinion however upsetting that is for us all. Absolutely no chance. Events being cancelled left right and centre, things like football have an order of magnitude higher of financial impact yet are cancelled, and whilst Emily made a few noises about ‘wait and see’, the government is likely to start banning certain gatherings and then who knows what the time limit will be. 

Glastonbury aren’t likely to risk gambling wasting millions of pounds on when the restrictions will be lifted I wouldn’t have thought, and also won’t want to be seen to be not being socially responsible. Bet it will be cancelled within the next 5-10 days  

It would be a miracle if it goes ahead, that being said unlike almost every other festival in the UK it wouldn’t financially break them irreparably to lose a few million and they aren’t in it for the money so that’s the glimmer of hope for me. 
 

sorry I know this isn’t very positive but I believe it is the realistic position and I’d rather be prepared ahead of a disappointment personally 

Agreed with this.

Glastonbury unfortunately is pretty much the perfect petri dish to spark a second spike nationally even if the peak hits before late June.

Close contact with someone for 15 minutes is thought sufficient to pass it on. Think how many acts each person sees, night time activities etc etc and each time they're in close contact with a different group of people. Even if out of 200k on site only 2% have it - very optimistic for later on this year - that'd be 4,000 attendees who would each be passing it on to multiple people over the weekend.

And then you have these attendees going back all around the country, getting coaches back together and infecting their local population. 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

5 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

"Short sharp shock" is many 10s of 1000s dead. 100s of 1000s even. 

Keep thinking thats gonna lead to people singing Hey Jude in June if it gets you thru howevvs.

The same amount of people die however you approach this 

[Wooderson]

5 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

The same amount of people die however you approach this 

Cheers Nobby.

[dentalplan]

24 minutes ago, gazzared said:

It'll all blow over in a few weeks 👍

[Splatt]

We are just about to live through a national, indeed global, tragedy with a scale of outcome not yet known. Whichever way you cut this in my mind is no time for a festival. Cancel now and regroup for the festival to end all festivals in 2021. The show indeed must go on but now is not the right time. 

[danbailey80]

What you have to consider is that for a lot of acts they are already playing for a massively reduced cost so would need to know if it's  cancelled or not so they can make alternative plans. That said, there are no events being held anywhere so apart from studio time there's not much conflicting options 

[marathonsteve]

We should know early next week if the government is going to restrict mass gatherings.

[Dusk1983]

6 hours ago, Suprefan said:

if Glasto can take place and stake its place as one of the most important moments of this very young decade, its worth  all of this pain and uncertainty

If this was to be the last Glasto i could attend, Im ok with that. I would never want to have endless days thinking of what could have been, and most of you would feel the same.

See: third stage of grief. Bargaining.

[Hugh Jass]

3 minutes ago, Dusk1983 said:

See: third stage of grief. Bargaining.

I’m now at Acceptance.

It ain’t happening.

[The Red Telephone]

The festival don’t need to announce any updates until the start of the the ticket balance week - unless the government announce on all mass events until July, unlikely at this point.

If we are in the position that the experts are predicting, then we will still not know the effects of banning mass events by this point.

So, unless everything has gone batshit crazy, the logical step would be to delay the balance payment window for 4 weeks until the start of May.

The festival could continue with a small build of the site in the intervening weeks.

By the start if May it will be 8/9 weeks until the gates theoretically open and by then we will know there’s any chance.

Stating the bleeding obvious, the next 5/6 weeks are crucial. I am pessimistic, but haven’t given up hope just yet.
 

The festival doesn’t gain anything from cancelling yet. If, and it’s a big if, it goes ahead then we will have the best fucking weekend ever.

I’ve seen some comments here about a pared-back festival with some features missing. Would completely accept that! The festival could then give you an option of donating some money from your ticket (as they won’t have spent as much on the build) to charities and organisations that are helping folk in the wake of the virus. I’d happily spend £250 to stand in one of those fields with a can of cider surrounded by you lovely lot, even if the only entertainment was provided by Worthy FM blaring out of decrepit ghetto blaster.

I can’t see how a postponement to later on in the summer would work - a logistical nightmare, with no guarantee all that upheaval would result anyway. Chances are if it ain’t going ahead in June, it wouldn’t go ahead in August either.

I’m a Radiographer and half the time I’m bloody terrified about what the next month or so could bring! As long as we look out for each other and our old folks and keep the Glastonbury spirit alive, we’re gonna be alright y’know...

[eFestivals]

I've just put up a page to keep track of where things stand for festivals, here:-

https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/coronavirus2020.shtml

The page will be kept up to date as things change. Please feel free to alert me to anything not on the page.

[Pipine]

Definitely agree with Benja100, I just can’t see the financial risk being bearable very soon..  the logistics and bookings would be so uncertain (policing, build, artists etc) it would all be such a huge gamble and they surely wouldn’t want to risk the security of future festivals to try and pull it off, the stress on them all and the feeling of responsibility for everyone involved would be horrendous.  It’s heartbreaking but I can’t see them pushing on much longer. It must be the worst time they’ve been though.. I hope they’re doing ok xx

[stuartbert two hats]

11 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

 

 

[Zoo Music Girl]

6 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

99 pages long so apologies if this has ready been discussed....

But could they postpone everything by a month? Boomtown (mid august) posted today that they expect to go ahead as it's august. 

Assuming everything else on the planet is cancelled (looking likely) the artists are unlikely to have anything else booked/ there may be others who have had cancellations who are now free and logistically all the uk contractors will be desperate for business after cancellations so wanting to make it happen. And, finally they also own most of the land and the parts they don't own but lease aren't being used for much else.

Obviously this is hoping and praying that the worst scenarios don't come true, which if they do festivals will be your least concern. 

 

I actually think quite a big portion of the land used isn't theirs these days, isn't it? I wouldn't say they aren't used for much else either as I thought it was all farmland. Could be wrong, though. But then you've got the local council, the feelings of the locals themselves and the licence to consider. It's not that easy to just postpone by a month as it's not only their decision. Also I think you'd want to postpone until much later in the summer to be sure. Personally if it's cancelled I can't see it on until next year.

I don't have a ticket and was going to try the resale or maybe go to Blue Dot, but I can't get excited about either now. At the moment I'm far more worried about what this virus is going to do to people I know in at-risk groups and trying to decide whether or not I should visit my elderly parents when I an exposed to so many people on the tube every day and the virus has a long incubation period. Festivals suddenly seem a  lot less important. Which is a shame as they've always been the highlight of my year.

[gordong]

IF it is cancelled outright, I’m so curious to see what they do about tickets as in cancelling them also and saying try in October or keeping them valid for next year. Either option is going to infuriate hundreds of thousands of people. 

[dentalplan]

10 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

 

 

True but when crediting him for ‘doing something’; Shaun’s insistence on self-isolating at the pub was reckless and fewer of his party would have been dead if he’d stayed at home or his mum’s.

Edited March 14, 2020 by dentalplan

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

Pretty sure there will be no carry over for tickets as has been discussed endlessly on here. However being the 50th... they may want to still hold an actual 50th next year which is the one thing that might actually mean there is some sort of carry over/option to buy scenario.

[DeadAmos]

14 minutes ago, The Red Telephone said:

The festival don’t need to announce any updates until the start of the the ticket balance week - unless the government announce on all mass events until July, unlikely at this point.

If we are in the position that the experts are predicting, then we will still not know the effects of banning mass events by this point.

So, unless everything has gone batshit crazy, the logical step would be to delay the balance payment window for 4 weeks until the start of May.

The festival could continue with a small build of the site in the intervening weeks.

By the start if May it will be 8/9 weeks until the gates theoretically open and by then we will know there’s any chance.

Stating the bleeding obvious, the next 5/6 weeks are crucial. I am pessimistic, but haven’t given up hope just yet.
 

The festival doesn’t gain anything from cancelling yet. If, and it’s a big if, it goes ahead then we will have the best fucking weekend ever.

I’ve seen some comments here about a pared-back festival with some features missing. Would completely accept that! The festival could then give you an option of donating some money from your ticket (as they won’t have spent as much on the build) to charities and organisations that are helping folk in the wake of the virus. I’d happily spend £250 to stand in one of those fields with a can of cider surrounded by you lovely lot, even if the only entertainment was provided by Worthy FM blaring out of decrepit ghetto blaster.

I can’t see how a postponement to later on in the summer would work - a logistical nightmare, with no guarantee all that upheaval would result anyway. Chances are if it ain’t going ahead in June, it wouldn’t go ahead in August either.

I’m a Radiographer and half the time I’m bloody terrified about what the next month or so could bring! As long as we look out for each other and our old folks and keep the Glastonbury spirit alive, we’re gonna be alright y’know...

I might be being a bit dim here but

Can you please explain to me why this is the logical step , as I see it there is no diffrence in refunding people £50 or £265. The thing I see is the festival would just be cutting off its income

Edited March 14, 2020 by DeadAmos
fat fingers

[rubenz]

Just now, dentalplan said:

True but when crediting him for ‘doing something’; Shaun’s insistence to self-isolate at the pub was reckless and fewer of his party would have been dead if he’d stayed at home or his mum’s.

I have been explaining to the youngsters in my office that the idea of going to the Winchester to wait for things to  blow over originates from Minder. One of them had never heard of Minder though!

[jparx]

13 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

I've just put up a page to keep track of where things stand for festivals, here:-

https://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/coronavirus2020.shtml

The page will be kept up to date as things change. Please feel free to alert me to anything not on the page.

That's really useful, great job Neil.

[dentalplan]

1 minute ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Pretty sure there will be no carry over for tickets as has been discussed endlessly on here. However being the 50th... they may want to still hold an actual 50th next year which is the one thing that might actually mean there is some sort of carry over/option to buy scenario.

It’s not the 50th festival - it’s 50 anniversary of the first festival. They can’t hold a 50th anniversary in 2021.