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Music Festivals given go ahead from late May...


Chrisp1986
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7 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

What do we think the chances are of a festival-free season for the second year in a row? Seems like the further into the year we get, the more uncertain the situation becomes. Surely it should be the other way around?

With Shambala now pulled, sitting almost at the end of the season, despite it being 'smaller' I'd now say all bets are off. 

I reckon there might be one or two that are big enough to be able to wait, and will then happen. It'll be like finding one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets! From a selfish perspective, I just hope Boomtown might be able to sneak in. 

Ben

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8 minutes ago, bennyhana22 said:

With Shambala now pulled, sitting almost at the end of the season, despite it being 'smaller' I'd now say all bets are off. 

I reckon there might be one or two that are big enough to be able to wait, and will then happen. It'll be like finding one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets! From a selfish perspective, I just hope Boomtown might be able to sneak in. 

Ben

You are my most positive favourite poster on this thread. If you are wavering, I feel this is more significant than Shambala cancelling 😂😂

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Just now, bennyhana22 said:

With Shambala now pulled, sitting almost at the end of the season, despite it being 'smaller' I'd now say all bets are off. 

I reckon there might be one or two that are big enough to be able to wait, and will then happen. It'll be like finding one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets! From a selfish perspective, I just hope Boomtown might be able to sneak in. 

Ben

I guess it depends on payment clauses for acts and infrastructure and build start cut-offs? I'd imagine there are a few organisations perilously close to the edge right now

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I have who works with some of the Shambala squad, so she tends to be in the know. She was telling me that the problem with Shambala is that it doesn't make that much money in a normal year, so that they can't really afford to take any risks in a year like this, especially as they didn't get the recovery fund.

 

 

Perhaps it'll just be the festivals with a lot of money behind them happening this year?

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26 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

I guess it depends on payment clauses for acts and infrastructure and build start cut-offs? I'd imagine there are a few organisations perilously close to the edge right now

Totally. I can understand entirely how smaller organisations working on very tight margins must be either down to the last dregs of their fingernails, or have reluctantly already pulled the plug. It's just such a crying shame as so many of them most likely could still have delivered an amazing festival, but were given zero central support in order to do so. 

Ben

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50 minutes ago, bennyhana22 said:

With Shambala now pulled, sitting almost at the end of the season, despite it being 'smaller' I'd now say all bets are off. 

I reckon there might be one or two that are big enough to be able to wait, and will then happen. It'll be like finding one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets! From a selfish perspective, I just hope Boomtown might be able to sneak in. 

Ben

39 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

I guess it depends on payment clauses for acts and infrastructure and build start cut-offs? I'd imagine there are a few organisations perilously close to the edge right now

22 minutes ago, Gilgamesh69 said:

I have who works with some of the Shambala squad, so she tends to be in the know. She was telling me that the problem with Shambala is that it doesn't make that much money in a normal year, so that they can't really afford to take any risks in a year like this, especially as they didn't get the recovery fund.

 

 

Perhaps it'll just be the festivals with a lot of money behind them happening this year?

I just posted this in the R&L thread and thought it was relevant to this discussion so posting in here too.

Yeah R&L will want to make it happen and as a big company they'll have the money to be able to hold off for a long time. Melvin will also be in discussions with sectors of the gov as I know he's quite close to that sort of thing. Not sure the insurance being granted means they're all off if non socially distance stuff happens after June 21st R&L will push ahead I'm sure. I do think them being at the end of August is a massive factor which will help and how big FR is. If festivals haven't happened up until August I could even see R&L pushing to be a test event, the first of it's size. Shambala won't be the last to cancel but I'm still pretty confident of R&L happening. 

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I think the optimism on festivals going ahead came from the announcement of the 21st June date as things being ‘broadly back to normal’.

This was almost immediately followed by Reading/Leeds and many other festivals tweeting something along the lines of ‘all systems go’ or ‘see you all in August’.

Since then the confidence has started to slip and several cancellations later has increased the doubt but you can understand why people thought that festivals would be happening.

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My blood is boiling at the thought of seeing BBC footage of piles of people in pubs over the summer, watching sport and politicians patting themselves on the back that they've got 'life back to normal' and foreign holidays are back on (somewhere), yet its becoming less and less likely we can be outside, in a field enjoying the arts , there;s this whole sector thats been totally and utterly tossed aside.

I seriously thought there was hope for the end of the summer, its months away, yet with Shambala etc cancelling I'm losing hope, and thats not like me 😞

 

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Bloodstock seem pretty confident of going ahead in mid August judging by the organisers comments and the fact that they are still booking bands, albeit British ones.

Arctangent are a week later, only 5000 capacity, and have said in a recent livestream for Bristol Exchange that all is in order to go ahead as normal and they had ‘just come off the phone to Opeth’s management and they have confirmed that they still plan to come over’.

Reading/Leeds seem to act as if it’s going ahead too, though they have been delaying announcing the line up so that doesn’t sound too good but that’s likely to be related to the fact that American bands may need to withdraw.

The thing all these have in common is that they are in the second half of August so all hope is not lost yet.

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2 hours ago, efcfanwirral said:

Does anyone know if camping festivals are different to the non camping ones in terms of risk and how far they can push it before there is no turning back? I'm thinking victorious, neighbourhood weekender, trnsmt etc? Or is it likely if the camping ones go then they all do? 

Not quite the same thing, I don't really understand it and have I posted this here before... but FYI, Shindig seem to think that booking something in a holiday park makes it more likely to happen:

"Due to it taking place at Pontins, it isn’t classed as a mass gathering. So we are confident the event will be able to go ahead in October." 

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2 hours ago, rivalschools.price said:

Bloodstock seem pretty confident of going ahead in mid August judging by the organisers comments and the fact that they are still booking bands, albeit British ones.

Arctangent are a week later, only 5000 capacity, and have said in a recent livestream for Bristol Exchange that all is in order to go ahead as normal and they had ‘just come off the phone to Opeth’s management and they have confirmed that they still plan to come over’.

Reading/Leeds seem to act as if it’s going ahead too, though they have been delaying announcing the line up so that doesn’t sound too good but that’s likely to be related to the fact that American bands may need to withdraw.

The thing all these have in common is that they are in the second half of August so all hope is not lost yet.

Further to this, Judas Priest have cancelled all 2021 dates except for the Bloodstock one. Sounds positive.

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I'm not planning to go this year, but am still on the mailing list for Cropredy, which is pretty small and sedate in the grand scheme of things. Their update sheds a bit of light on where many are I reckon:

Now to the question you’ve all been asking: is Cropredy going ahead this year? Inevitably, there are many factors involved before any concrete decision can be made.

Firstly, despite sustained lobbying, our industry has thus far been unable to obtain government backed cancelation insurance covering Covid. Without this insurance in place, we and other festivals would be taking a huge risk were we to go ahead. Organisations such as the Association of Independent Festivals and the Association of Festival Organisers will continue to lobby on our behalf.

Secondly, we are waiting for clarification the Prime Minister has promised regarding Step 4, the removal of all restrictions, on or after 21 June once he has the data from the Event Research Programme taking place in May. At the time of writing the numbers of cases and deaths are coming down, there are less patients in hospital and the massive vaccination programme is ahead of its projected schedule. However, one thing we’ve all learnt from the past 14 months is that we can’t take anything for granted. Nonetheless we remain cautiously optimistic (surely this year’s most over-used phrase). There is an air of hope in the country at the moment so let’s keep our fingers crossed that the news in June will be just the tonic we all need.

If we are given the green light, we will be ready to go. As always, our primary concern will be the safety and wellbeing of our crews, the performers, village residents and – of course – you, the Cropredy crowd

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52 minutes ago, Big durbs said:

also , today Nile rodgers pulled out of bristol for this July , and will now be next july.

do they know something we dont ???

I wouldn't read into it too much. There's often lots of stuff behind the scenes to do with scheduling (eg they had some other stuff lined up that week that ended up getting pulled), and I know some of Nile's band aren't UK based which complicates things.

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20 minutes ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

Secondly, we are waiting for clarification the Prime Minister has promised regarding Step 4, the removal of all restrictions, on or after 21 June once he has the data from the Event Research Programme taking place in May.

Agree with all of that, except they are missing that there is a second phase to the ERP which will run from May into June, with results expected early/mid July. 

This is expected to focus more on outdoor mass gatherings, and repeats of similar trials of phase 1 except with some restrictions removed, such as pre-testing etc.

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5 minutes ago, Paul ™ said:

Agree with all of that, except they are missing that there is a second phase to the ERP which will run from May into June, with results expected early/mid July. 

This is expected to focus more on outdoor mass gatherings, and repeats of similar trials of phase 1 except with some restrictions removed, such as pre-testing etc.

A second phase of the ERP is a pointless exercise without giving events the confidence to continue, there won’t be anything left. 

I’m still rooting for end of social restrictions on 21/6 including outdoor events. 

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A 4th wave will be enough to put pay to festival plans though it could be based on infection count rather than hosp admissions next time round. At the end of the day festivals offered tix based on what could optimistically happen rather than what could actually happen, so we pays our money and hope for the best.

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