Womad organiser and former Genesis lead says uncertainty over full Covid reopening means some festivals will cancel
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First published on Thu 17 Jun 2021 06.23 EDT
Peter Gabriel, the musician turned festival organiser, has called for a government-backed insurance scheme for festivals this summer after the delay to large events cast doubt over their prospects.
On Monday the government delayed the last stage of removing restrictions on large gatherings, which had been scheduled for 21 June, pushing it back to 19 July to give time to vaccinate more people.
Boris Johnson described 19 July as a “terminus date”, but the extra month of uncertainty over whether restrictions will ease has meant festivals being cancelled rather than risking going under if they cannot go ahead, Gabriel told BBC radio’s Today programme on Thursday.
Gabriel, who was the lead singer of the prog rock band Genesis, has run the Womad world music festival since 1982. The latest Womad event is scheduled for 22 to 25 July, leaving no leeway if restrictions are extended further.
More than a quarter of music festivals scheduled to take place in the UK in 2021 were cancelled by May because of the lack of commercial or government insurance, according to figures from the Association of Independent Festivals.
A government-underwritten insurance scheme would allow the sector to continue to prepare for the summer festival season, Gabriel said. He added that the sector would accept the government charging a premium rather than asking for grants.
“The problem for us is that we don’t have enough time after these four weeks to do a setup so there are a lot of costs incurred,” Gabriel said. “We’re not asking for handouts. We’d be quite happy if the government were willing to underwrite us for them to make money out of that. What we need, though, is the security because most of us can’t take the risk of losing everything once we’re committed to the setup.”
The government already underwrites flood risk on homes through the industry body Flood Re, and underwrites first-time homebuyers with deposit insurance.
It has also allowed some large crowds in trial events. There were 12,000 people watching horse racing at Royal Ascot, while limited crowds have been allowed in the delayed Euro 2020 football championships. The final four matches to be played at Wembley stadium, including the final on 11 July, will welcome crowds of up to 45,000.
Jesse Norman, the financial secretary to the Treasury, told the Today programme that an insurance programme would be a matter for discussion between festivals and the culture secretary.
“The government has already poured an enormous amount of money into the arts and culture sector,” he said. “Many parts of that sector have already benefited from the plans we have put in place, both the furlough and self-employed schemes and the specific £2bn of cultural support that we have given to that sector.”
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