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Coronavirus: music festivals, big gigs, sports events and big gatherings - going ahead and cancelled

killer b said:
Anyone talking about 'pre-pandemic (audience) numbers' and 'covid secure environment' is indulging in magical thinking, never mind wishful
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If I had to speculate I think there might be a role for this sort of stuff further down the line - somewhere between the point where vaccination is starting to have an impact and the point where infection levels are genuinely fully under control. At the moment though I think you're right though tbh.
 
Voley said:
Paul McCartney on Radio 4 earlier today saying he thought it had been confirmed that Glastonbury wouldn't be happening this year. He was meant to be headlining wasn't he?
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Yes, and that Radio 4 thing wasn't the only place where Paul McCartney was saying the 'no Glastonbury' thing.

In contrast to that, a few days later, I wondered whether Michael Eavis had been having a rare cider session :eek: (he doesn't drink much generally) when I read this story on 'Glastofestfeed', a rare festival site that I'm not familar with :oops: ....

Glastofestfeed headline said:
Michael Eavis says Glastonbury 2021 is “going to happen – you wait and see … ”
The Glastonbury Festival founder sounds more determinedly optimistic than ever!
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But it's based on nothing :( This is the Youtube thing they refer to :



ETA : And I've just properly realised how utterly short and flimsy that video was! :oops: -- embarassing :(

The Emily Eavis bit at the end of the above 'story' is less optimistic, more realistic :

Glastofestfeed said:
Earlier this week Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis told the BBC that they are doing “everything we can” to ensure it takes place next year.
She said : “The hard part is understanding exactly what we’ll be planning for, and what impact that will have on what we’re able to do. But right now I’m not sure there’s anything we could do that would completely ensure we can welcome 200,000 people to spend six days in some fields in June 2021.”
Eavis also noted that if the festival could not happen in its traditional form, the organisers will consider inviting artists to perform on the farm for a series of live streams.
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Interesting that she specifies '200,000 people' and 'in June' though ...... not that the ultra-faint possibility of a changed/smaller/even re-dated event makes me any more hopeful at the moment :(
 
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There was talk of testing everyone on entry, but given even the queues would be super speeder spreader events, doesn’t make much sense to me.

They had a gov thing on festivals yesterday, this is what was reported on the guardian
www.theguardian.com

Music festivals call for new government scheme as sector faces ruin

MPs told state-backed insurance could allow festivals to plan summer events with confidence
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

this is what I’ve been saying could happen. Glastonbury paid lip service to it last year. Not wrong about the last sentence though.
 
Fuckinell can you imagine trying to test everyone going to Glastonbury. You've travelled all that way, packed into cars and trains and buses, schlepped your shit with you, waited in the heaving rain or hammering sun, get your test and told to go home. So now your pals, your best mate, your lover, who travelled with you in the packed car but isn’t infected enough to show positive, they’re waving at you as they pick up their programmes and go througn the cattle gate and you have to turn around and travel back home.

As if.
 
SheilaNaGig said:
Fuckinell can you imagine trying to test everyone going to Glastonbury. You've travelled all that way, packed into cars and trains and buses, schlepped your shit with you, waited in the heaving rain or hammering sun, get your test and told to go home. So now your pals, your best mate, your lover, who travelled with you in the packed car but isn’t infected enough to show positive, they’re waving at you as they pick up their programmes and go througn the cattle gate and you have to turn around and travel back home.

As if.
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Exactly. The whole thing is a fantasy.
 
SheilaNaGig said:
Fuckinell can you imagine trying to test everyone going to Glastonbury. You've travelled all that way, packed into cars and trains and buses, schlepped your shit with you, waited in the heaving rain or hammering sun, get your test and told to go home. So now your pals, your best mate, your lover, who travelled with you in the packed car but isn’t infected enough to show positive, they’re waving at you as they pick up their programmes and go througn the cattle gate and you have to turn around and travel back home.

As if.
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I don't even know why people find it tempting. I'm more into sweaty dark clubs to get my kicks, but can't see them being open really this year and until they are open normally I think I'd probably rather not bother.
 
I've got tickets for Glastonbury and I can say with 99.9% certainty that I won't be going even if it does go ahead this year (which it won't). Just seems way to risky unless they can come up with some magic solution.
 
Me the optimist is thinking, it's possible but unlikely.
If they can make 2 million vaccines a week, September is 64 million vaccines away from now.
We don't need that many. I think we will be in the final throws or head in hands for reasons nobody can predict.
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
Would love to be wrong but I still don’t think it’s possible. Even with the vaccine rollout there surely has to be a reasonable period of time afterwards where the case numbers have to stay low before large crowds can gather again?
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I think it's ambitious too. And - heartbreakingly for me - I haven't got much confidence that our twice-postponed USA/Canadian tour in October is going to happen.
 
Just in case people still think I expect Glastonbury or any other festivals (above the really tiny and very late) will happen this summer (2021), you're wrong.

For ages, I'm been more and more ultra-pessimistic** about festivals (even though I'm pretty optimistic about vaccines).

**And also pretty fucking depressed :( :( -- we're still writing some event dates into festibaldeb's 2021 kitten calendar, but with between zero and less than zero real expectation about making more than the odd and small one, very late on.

It's beyond miserable :(
 
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editor said:
I think it's ambitious too. And - heartbreakingly for me - I haven't got much confidence that our twice-postponed USA/Canadian tour in October is going to happen.
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You’ve touched there on another factor for future tours/festivals - unless they’re entirely UK based lineups it’s not just down to our vaccine/covid status but the rest of the world too.
 
Tiniest glimmers of hope amongst some rather optimistic forecasting

Festivals aside, there is hope for smaller gigs returning sooner than later. Recent tests conducted in Germany into the transmission of coronavirus at indoor concerts found that the environment poses a “low-to-very low” risk to attendees of contracting the disease. Another recent study found that the risk of infecting someone in a venue “through aerosol transmission can be almost ruled out”, providing that the venue has a sufficient fresh-air supply and that all attendees are wearing face masks.
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Meanwhile, in the UK, London’s legendary 100 Club is set to pilot a new ventilation system that aims to wipe out 99.99% of dangerous airborne pathogens, such as coronavirus, within buildings. The aim of the trial is “to prove that the integration of this new system into a building’s air conditioning creates an indoor environment that is COVID-secure, allowing audience numbers to return to a pre-pandemic normal for Britain’s 1,100 theatres and thousands of live music venues”.
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“It would be quite profound if it was successful,” Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd told NME. “We’re keen that we not only bring back live music, but that we bring it back safely. There are some things to be learned from the pandemic that we are keen to roll out at the Test, Clean, Prevent gigs at The 100 Club. This isn’t just about how we make gigs safe, but also how can we improve the health and safety of gigs anyway? We don’t just want to make it through this pandemic and think, ‘Oh, that’s over’ – we need to be thinking about making it through the next one.”

He continued: “The modelling that we’ve done with the government suggests that the process would provide an extremely safe event – probably unnecessarily safe – but it’s good to do that to see how we can improve things like air quality and cleanliness.”

Asked about what real impact this would have for the gig-going public, Davyd replied: “It would be quite dramatic I think. Once we’ve established that we can run events that have a higher level of risk management, then you can go back to government with science to say that you can go back to full capacity. People are catastrophising, saying that nothing will go back to normal until next year. I don’t see that as being the outcome. I think it’s going to require some ingenuity and inventiveness, but it is possible to continue to imagine how we get back.”
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He added: “I’m not as pessimistic about music returning to small venues in people’s local towns and cities as other people are about us getting the whole live music industry back up and running. I’m certain we can put on socially distanced gigs from spring onwards – that’s our position and the government’s position. Can we put on a full capacity gig at The Adelphi in Hull in 2021? I’m going to say yes at this point. I think full capacity with something near normal behaviour will take a little bit longer, but we’re confident it will happen this year.”

Dr Michael Head is a Senior Research Fellow in Global Health at the University of Southampton. Speaking to NME, he warned that the necessary level of vaccination might not be reached until the end of summer.

“Before the government starts to open things up, and that’s including gigs and festivals, we would want to see all of the vulnerable people vaccinated; all of groups one to nine,” he said. “We’d also want a large amount of the rest of population vaccinated too before to allow people to mix too freely – whether that be indoors or outdoors.
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www.nme.com

When and how could gigs and festivals return in 2021? Industry insiders tell us what to expect

Music industry insiders, festival bosses and medical experts have told NME about when fans can hope for the return of live music in the UK, and what will be required
www.nme.com www.nme.com
 
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