Will Coronavirus lead to the cancellation of Glastonbury?

[Ozanne]

5 minutes ago, ModernMan said:

Must say I thought that as well but maybe that’s projection of wanting it to happen so badly! Guess you can read it either way but it’s a fair assumption to take it in good faith at the moment, and furthermore, only 2 weeks away from ticket payments. 

Part of the joys of just reading text you can never tell the tone and project what you'd like onto it. Either way though it's made me feel a bit better for a little bit so at least that's something.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

The best hope for all of us that want it carried over, or want an option to buy for 2021 is that they class it as a postponement. I think somebody said on here that a lot of festivals are coming out and saying they’re postponing rather than cancelling for insurance purposes. 

[DeadAmos]

The best way to resolve this is not to cancel the festival

and if it is cancelled , blame the torys 😁

[Sawdusty surfer]

Really don't like having to say it, but as the festival looks like it's due three or so weeks after the peak it is not IMO likely to happen.

In a 'normal' year, much of the festival only just manages to get itself together on time in an orderly fashion. Loads of bits of it are short staffed. There are heavens knows how many pretty much irreplacable people doing very specialised jobs.

Probably thousands of people are self employed and and work there for nothing and they can only just afford to do it.

The license requires certain numbers of stewards and security.

There's a higher crew to ticket buyer ratio there than probably any other festival and those crew are essential. Howmany of them will be unavailable, possibly at short notice?

I could go on.

Finally the enormous and richly staffed medical centre............

Sorry, but I have to agree with so many of my friends that also work there, it's not looking very good.

The issue of people passing on the virus there is actually pretty irrelevant to it going ahead.

(I really didn't enjoy typing that, J )

Edited March 12, 2020 by Sawdusty Surfer

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

2 minutes ago, DeadAmos said:

but the other 1.9m would still say it's down to the 100,000 allocated tickets  , it's human nature

But there will also be a lot of lot of overlap as well. in any given Glastonbury sale you’ll have X amount trying for a ticket. For the 100k that take up their option for 2021, if the cancellation never happened a large percentage of that 100k would be part of the X amount of people trying for 2021 anyway.

The fact that they have a ticket already means they won’t be competing with the other 2 million people as they otherwise would’ve been.

 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

7 minutes ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

Really don't like having to say it, but as the festival looks like it's due three or so weeks after the peak it is not IMO likely to happen.

In a 'normal' year,much of the festival only just manages to get itself together on time in an orderly fashion. Laods of bits of it are short staffed. There are heavens knows how many pretty much irreplacable people doing very specialised jobs.

Probably thousands of people are self employed and and work there for nothing and they can only just afford to do it.

There's a higher crew to ticket buyer ratio there than probably any other festival and those crew are essential. Howmany of them will be unavailable, possibly at short notice?

I could go on.

Finally the enormous and richly staffed medical centre............

Sorry, but I have to agree with so many of my friends that also work there, it's not looking very good.

The issue of people passing on the virus there is actually pretty irrelevant to it going ahead.

(I really didn'y enjoy typing that, J )

Just playing devils advocate, if so many people that help are self employed, unless they are sick and physically can’t do it won’t they need to do it more than ever?

Edited March 12, 2020 by Deaf Nobby Burton

[Sawdusty surfer]

Just now, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Just playing devils advocate, if so many people that help are self employed, unless they are sick and physically can’t do it won’t they need to do it more than ever?

They are self employed and so can arrange their work so that they can get a big chunk of time off to 'work' at the festival for tickets and free food.........  

The vast majority of crew that I know that are there for a week or two don't actually earn anything. It's a love thing

 

[gizmoman]

2 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Just playing devils advocate, if so many people that help are self employed, unless they are sick and physically can’t do it won’t they need to do it more than ever?

I think he means they work the festival for nothing so they get to attend. If they are self employed and are having to have time off sick they would have to return to regular work rather than work the festival. (I hope i've got that right !)

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

Just now, Sawdusty Surfer said:

They are self employed and so can arrange their work so that they can get a big chunk of time off to 'work' at the festival for tickets and free food.........  

The vast majority of crew that I know that are there for a week or two don't actually earn anything. It's a love thing

 

Ah got you, sorry completely misunderstood.

[Guy Incognito]

Unconfirmed of course, but apparently Primavera Sound is going to be cancelled. 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

It’s such a frustrating situation, Cheltenham has gone ahead without any problems, yet Glastonbury could get canned. You can argue that if Glastonbury falls just after the peak in cases it would’ve been more useful to cancel Cheltenham at the start of things rather than Glastonbury towards the end, yet here we are anyway.

[TownesMR]

4 minutes ago, Guy Incognito said:

Unconfirmed of course, but apparently Primavera Sound is going to be cancelled. 

Source?

[Lycra]

8 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

It’s such a frustrating situation, Cheltenham has gone ahead without any problems, yet Glastonbury could get canned. You can argue that if Glastonbury falls just after the peak in cases it would’ve been more useful to cancel Cheltenham at the start of things rather than Glastonbury towards the end, yet here we are anyway.

Let's put this in perspective. Whole Cheltenham festival  = 4 premier league fixtures  

[Avalon_Fields]

33 minutes ago, JoBalls said:

I like this option, I think it’s fair. Personally I’d carry my tickets over without a second thought but I bet there’s plenty who would take their refund to either go to a festival later in the year or go on holiday or something. 

Yes, it’s very reasonable and balanced, I’d undoubtedly put the money up front.

[jow95]

It’s not the postivitity and blind optimism that we need right now but u just cannot see this happening given the current situation   

 

 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

1 minute ago, Lycra said:

Let's put this in perspective. Whole Cheltenham festival  = 4 premier league fixtures  

I’m not sure of your point, but nearly 300k people attend over the four days which is more than Glastonbury?

[stuartbert two hats]

Well damn, Emily doesn't sound particularly confident does she?

[squirrelarmy]

I want to change my vote. 
 

Originally I put I’m not sure but I think it will go ahead. Now I’m 100% certain it’s happening. 
 

We have some dark times ahead of us over the next few months but Glastonbury is going to be that beacon of light that is going to get us through it. 
 

We definitely need something to look forward to and focus on. And that line up is fantastic even though I’m going nowhere near any of the headliners 😂

[Sawdusty surfer]

Just now, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

I’m not sure of your point, but nearly 300k people attend over the four days which is more than Glastonbury?

Compare the infrastructure and the crew to punter ratio, and Cheltenham is now and not in three months time.

[DareToDibble]

Confidence is falling in it happening  

I originally voted option 4 in the poll but I think I’d be option 2 now...

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

2 minutes ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

Compare the infrastructure and the crew to punter ratio, and Cheltenham is now and not in three months time.

Ok I get you, I was just talking more from the governments point of view in terms of risk of spreading the virus rather than the actual logistics of setting it up 

[zahidf]

Aw crap

 

 

[sirjonnyp]

16 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

It’s such a frustrating situation, Cheltenham has gone ahead without any problems

It's happened without any problems that we know of yet. 

On Sunday 85000 people attended the MCG for the womens T20 final. Yesterday (Thursday arvo) the MCG announced that one of those people has since been diagnosed and named the area of seating where the spectator was - although the risk was classed as low, that's still a lot of people that could have picked it up and passed it on already. 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

Just now, sirjonnyp said:

It's happened without any problems that we know of yet. 

On Sunday 85000 people attended the MCG for the womens T20 final. Yesterday (Thursday arvo) the MCG announced that one of those people has since been diagnosed and named the area of seating where the spectator was - although the risk was classed as low, that's still a lot of people that could have picked it up and passed it on already. 

When I say happened without any problems, that’s a poor choice of words on my part, what I mean is it’s gone ahead without any fuss.... if Glastonbury was this week it would’ve been fine, but as it’s in 15 weeks it probably won’t be, just bad luck really considering the virus is already here either way.

In terms of problems off the back of Cheltenham, I don’t want to go over old ground that has been covered in this thread 10x over, but further to what the scientific experts have repeatedly said, these type of events carry no real risk and anybody that might spread infection would’ve spread it somewhere else anyway.

[SwedgeAntilles]

Starting to think 5000-10,000 might've been a conservative (small 'c') estimate.