JUNE | OPINION
Steve Heap, General
Secretary of the AFO
The butterfly effect
Steve Heap, General Secretary
of the Association of Festival
Organisers (AFO), says the
impact of cancelled festivals
will be strongly felt by local
businesses
The 2020 festival season
has been wiped out.
At the Association of
Festival Organisers (AFO), 90 of
our member festivals postponed
to 2021, while 17 changed their
2020 date in the hope that they
could open their gates at the end
of the season. Some of these are
regretting their decision as the
lockdown continues. There is
now no doubt at all that if social
distancing is on, the festivals
are off.
There are an enormous
number of stats out there
describing the socio-economic
impact all this is going to have
on the country, and here at AFO
we can mark out our corner.
The average size of an AFO
member festival is between
3-5000 visits. If we take as an
average 3,200 visits, multiplied
by 90 festivals - that’s 288,000
people at home when they
wanted to be at a festival.
According to EIF research in
2018, each one of them would
have spent around £320. That
puts the total lost income from
AFO members at just over £92m.
For context, there are at least
1000 festivals each year in the
UK.
This will clearly show up on
the UK economy charts and be
very visible in each local area. It
will deprive local businesses of
their annual share of the festival
bonus, as well as taking away
tens of thousands of pounds
from the many charities that
these festivals support.
The UK government appeared
to step up to the plate with a
bottomless pot of funds, but on
closer inspection not much of it
is available to festival organisers
or their events. Most are either
volunteers or self-employed.
Some are directors of limited or
not for profit bodies, and most
slip through the cracks of HMRC
funding regulations.
So, just like in the foot and
mouth outbreak and the
banking crisis, festivals are
turning to their loyal customers,
their booked artists, and their
suppliers to pull together and
get themselves through this.
Many festivals have sold
up to 50% of their tickets for
2020, and reports suggest that
“Lost income from festivals will deprive
local businesses, and take away tens of
thousands of pounds from the charities
that these festivals support.”
most customers are happy to
have their money and ticket
transferred to 2021. However,
when the 2021 season gets
underway festivals will have
to remarket the new date and
changes to the line-up. That will
put them in a difficult spot of
trying to deliver a 100% festival
with about 60/70% of finance,
having had to spend a good deal
of funds on getting through
winter. That is where the UK
government bank loans may
have to kick in - if there is any
money left by April 2021!
The one thing we are sure
of is organisers of festivals are
dedicated, enthusiastic and
resilient. They will return in
2021. They will rebuild their
customers confidence in
organised crowds and events
and adapt to whatever new
rules come into play in the post
Covid-19 world.
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