“ Our team sat down , our shareholders , everybody to discuss it – we are aware of the gamble , the possible dangers that are ahead of us , but we made the decision to go forward . It will be one of the first festivals of the season .”
She says 10,000 tickets had been sold to the event prior to it being rescheduled and following the move sales soared .
Isle of Wight Festival chief John Giddings also saw tickets for his event sell strongly after it was announced the Live Nation-owned festival was to be rescheduled to 16-19 September .
“ I wanted it three months later because I didn ’ t want to be the guinea pig – the first show out . We ’ ve always been the first show of the season , we are now going to be the last show ,” says Giddings .
LGBT + event Pride In London , which was attended by an estimated 1.2 million people in 2019 , is another major event to have been postponed to September . Pride director of events Simon Jones says the move has been met with jubilation : “ It is a really important day in the calendar for the LGBT + community , Pride In London is as much a protest as it is a celebration , it is one of the largest of our events and so it is great to see such an extremely positive reaction to the move .”
Along with the 20,000-capacity Mighty Hoopla festival in London , which was moved from June to 4 September , another major event to have been shifted to an increasingly busy September is Manchester ’ s Parklife .
Rescheduled back in December , from 12-13 June to 11-12 September , Parklife has also enjoyed a dramatic rise in interest since the roadmap announcement . Sacha Lord , cofounder of the Manchester festival , says , “ We ran a pre-registration system for Parklife . We normally have about 40,000 people sign up to that
Gill Tee , Black Deer Festival
Stuart Galbraith , Kilimanjaro Live
“ We saw huge swathes of public excitement , and understandably so , all of us felt the same – it was a huge injection of positivity .” but at the moment we have nearly 145,000 , of which at least 100,000 happened on the back of the prime minister ’ s announcement .”
Measures for success While not all the outdoor events industry ’ s demands were met by the chancellor in his 3 March Budget , among the measures warmly welcomed was the extension of the 5 % reduced rate of VAT on ticket sales to 30 September , followed by an interim rate of 12.5 % for six months . The extension of the furlough and SEISS schemes to the end of the September were also much appreciated .
However , despite repeated industrywide lobbying , the chancellor made no mention of a Government-backed insurance scheme to protect festivals and other event operators against the risk of losses if they are forced to cancel due to Covid .
Live music industry umbrella group LIVE ( Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment ) is having ongoing dialogue with Government and the Treasury . John Glen , the economic secretary to the Treasury , suggested the publication of a roadmap for the reopening of the events sector could be the “ right point ” to consider
Simon Jones , Pride
Anna Wade , Boomtown
insurance-based support .
As Access went to press many in the events sector remained frustrated by the lack insurance support , not least as countries such as Germany , Austria , Norway and the Netherlands have all introduced schemes . According to an Association of Independent Festivals survey , 92.5 % of its members cannot stage events without insurance .
Kilimanjaro Live CEO and Concert Promoters Association vice chairman Stuart Galbraith says that the level of optimism in the industry and the huge appetite shown for events by consumers has been fantastic but without insurance event organisers will be left to make some difficult decisions .
He says , “ LIVE is talking to Treasury and I understand there are increasingly positive conversations but it ’ s about
Mighty Hoopla
Anna Wade , Boomtown
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