Ireland v UK Festivals

Rigor Mortis

Reading sold out this morning and Bestival and Blue Dot are intending to go ahead.

It will be interesting to see how the UK opening up ahead of us on things like this will be taken. I get it very hard to see any major outdoor event before October.

Muahahaha

Yeah I saw yer man Melvin from Festival Republic (who also run the Picnic) saying the Leeds and Reading festivals are going ahead in August. The UK will hit 20 million people vaccinated this weekend so at the pace they're going its possible they'll have most of the population vaccinated by the end of June/start of July. Meanwhile here we've 145,000 done and GPs are saying they cant get supply. The UK will have some sort of a summer but it doesnt look that way for us.

Stillill42

Muahahaha wrote: »

Yeah I saw yer man Melvin from Festival Republic (who also run the Picnic) saying the Leeds and Reading festivals are going ahead in August. The UK will hit 20 million people vaccinated this weekend so at the pace they're going its possible they'll have most of the population vaccinated by the end of June/start of July. Meanwhile here we've 145,000 done and GPs are saying they cant get supply. The UK will have some sort of a summer but it doesnt look that way for us.

And yet......
I mean they're still talking a million doses a month April, May and June, 80% of the adult population done by then. All about delivery, of course but you couldn't write off the chances of the likes of EP happening. If they can find a way to deal with the issue of insurance, get an an all-Irish cast that are ready to go on relatively short notice....who knows. Nobody will be bitching about line-ups, late announcements. And the pay off would be huge. It ain't over till it's over.

Del Griffith

Stillill42 wrote: »

And yet......
I mean they're still talking a million doses a month April, May and June, 80% of the adult population done by then. All about delivery, of course but you couldn't write off the chances of the likes of EP happening. If they can find a way to deal with the issue of insurance, get an an all-Irish cast that are ready to go on relatively short notice....who knows. Nobody will be bitching about line-ups, late announcements. And the pay off would be huge. It ain't over till it's over.

It's over man

Stillill42

Del Griffith wrote: »

It's over man

I'm choosing to ignore that, Del.

s8n

my sources say it isnt happening

Zardoz

Benn's recent statement was made to put pressure on the UK government and also to boost demand in the festivals and concert market .

Unless the UK govt announce insurance cover in the budget today for concerts, Reading and Leeds will not be be going ahead this summer.
From early leaks it looks like there wont be insurance cover.

Benn has a history for making disingenuous statements.

Last March he had this to say

I do not expect to have to postpone or cancel Electric Picnic because of coronavirus. “I’m not worried about it at all. I’m full steam ahead unless the governments here and in the UK say we can’t go ahead... I’m 100 per cent of the belief that by June we will all be over the hump and we will all have forgotten about it, quite frankly, and all you buggers” – the media – “will find something else to write about it.

Only last month his colleague Denis Desmond in MCD had this to say

The boss of MCD, Denis Desmond is expressing confidence Electric Picnic and Longitude music festivals will proceed this summer.
In an interview, Mr Desmond said “there is no reason other than logistics around the roll out of the vaccines here why this summer cannot happen”.
“I am hugely optimistic and I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be back this summer staging concerts,” he said

Israel's vaccination programme is ahead of the UK and their easing of restrictions is much slower than what the UK is proposing.

Livenations shareprice has recovered to pre pandemic levels, the rollover strategy is working well and Benn knows that its effectively a no lose situation announcing that he is extremely confident that the festivals will go ahead this summer when privately he think otherwise.

Muahahaha

Hard to see any insurance company insuring against a potential super spreader event, and if they did the premiums would be massive.

johnnyskeleton

Muahahaha wrote: »

Hard to see any insurance company insuring against a potential super spreader event, and if they did the premiums would be massive.

Well they might, but they would exclude covid claims from cover.

In ordinary times people would have to be responsible for themselves and decide if theyre prepared to take the risk of going. In reality, it'll fall on the companies themselves to decide whether to take the risk or not.

The problem is we just dont have the data on the extent to which open air events can spread diseases such as covid:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/cheltenham-coronavirus-super-spreader-events

Primavera did a test indoor concert with masks etc and had less covid cases than the control group. This test may not have been scientifically perfect, but it is a good example of what is possible.

Concieveably they could tell people that if the go to a festival, they do so at their own risk. People can decide not to go, or to go and wear a mask, or to wait until theyr vaccinated.

dohboy

The Euro 2020 final is set for Wembley on July 11. As of this minute, 90,000 fans could be in attendance. If that goes ahead - with no repercussions - music festivals would argue they are no different. Huge 'if' obviously.

julyjane

A friend of mine sent me a link for the isle of Wight in September. The line up is tempting but is it realistic? I wondered if it might be posted for September 2021 in order to get advance ticket sales for what will ultimately be a 2022 gig?

melekalikimaka

julyjane wrote: »

A friend of mine sent me a link for the isle of Wight in September. The line up is tempting but is it realistic? I wondered if it might be posted for September 2021 in order to get advance ticket sales for what will ultimately be a 2022 gig?

Ive two friends who have started working on it this week.

I can see the UK going ahead with gigs, here is a little more touch and go