With the fate of many music festivals hanging in the balance, El Hunt questions why the Government is yet to publish data from industry test events.
Historically, festivals – with their mud-wrestling, shared glitter pots, beige food offerings and distinct lack of showering facilities – have not been places you’d readily associate with cleanliness and good health. Combine close-quarters camping with many thousands of people descending upon a muddy field for a droplet-spraying sing-along, and you’ve got yourself an oven-ready recipe for COVID-19 – it’s the reason why virtually every single festival in the UK was forced to cancel in 2020.
A year later, the situation looks a little different – more than 43 million people in the UK have now had their first dose of a vaccine, and anybody can get hold of lateral flow tests (which return test results in half an hour) by filling in a quick online form. Though putting on a festival in a pandemic remains a huge challenge, some pilot mass events have been able to go ahead with no restrictions on site this summer, thanks to COVID testing before and after the event. These pilot festivals form part of the Event Research Programme, which has been going on for some time. Back at the beginning of May, Liverpool hosted a Blossoms-headlined pilot gig, and a warehouse club night, alongside a number of other pilot schemes – also including The BRIT awards and the FA Cup final. Just this weekend, a smaller-scale version of Download went ahead with 10,000 camping punters. A negative test granted metal-lovers entry to a utopian festival without any need for social distancing at all... Keep reading on NME.
Historically, festivals – with their mud-wrestling, shared glitter pots, beige food offerings and distinct lack of showering facilities – have not been places you’d readily associate with cleanliness and good health. Combine close-quarters camping with many thousands of people descending upon a muddy field for a droplet-spraying sing-along, and you’ve got yourself an oven-ready recipe for COVID-19 – it’s the reason why virtually every single festival in the UK was forced to cancel in 2020.
A year later, the situation looks a little different – more than 43 million people in the UK have now had their first dose of a vaccine, and anybody can get hold of lateral flow tests (which return test results in half an hour) by filling in a quick online form. Though putting on a festival in a pandemic remains a huge challenge, some pilot mass events have been able to go ahead with no restrictions on site this summer, thanks to COVID testing before and after the event. These pilot festivals form part of the Event Research Programme, which has been going on for some time. Back at the beginning of May, Liverpool hosted a Blossoms-headlined pilot gig, and a warehouse club night, alongside a number of other pilot schemes – also including The BRIT awards and the FA Cup final. Just this weekend, a smaller-scale version of Download went ahead with 10,000 camping punters. A negative test granted metal-lovers entry to a utopian festival without any need for social distancing at all... Keep reading on NME.