LONDON – The U.K. faces another lost summer of cancelled festivals unless the government steps in to provide urgent financial support, a report from Parliament’s Digital Culture, Media and Sport Committee warns.
The report backs calls from across the live industry for a government-backed insurance scheme that would cover the cost of last-minute cancellations as a result of COVID-19 for music events scheduled to take place after June 21. That’s the earliest possible date that the British government has said that concerts and festivals can resume without restrictions in the U.K.
Despite repeated calls from live execs for the government to introduce insurance protections in the U.K., ministers have ruled out such support before all pandemic-related restrictions are lifted. That would be too late for festival promoters looking to stage events later this summer, says the DCMS committee, which is also holding a separate inquiry into the streaming business. (The results of that probe are expected to be published in the coming weeks.)
“The vast majority of music festivals do not have the financial resilience to cover the costs of another year of late-notice cancellations,” said committee chair Julian Knight in announcing the inquiry’s findings. “If the commercial insurance market won’t step in, Ministers must, and urgently.”
Similar government-backed insurance schemes exist in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Denmark, and, after months of delays, were recently finalized in Germany. They provide a much-needed safety net for promoters committing non-recoupable upfront costs for future events amid the uncertainty of a pandemic.
The committee’s inquiry into the future of U.K. music festivals began on Nov. 6, with Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja, Paul Reed, chief executive at the Association of Independent Festivals, and Sacha Lord, co-founder of Parklife festival, among the execs called to give evidence before members.
UK Music CEO Jamie Njoku-Goodwin welcomed the committee’s recommendations and said the report arrived at a “make or break moment for this year’s summer festival season.”
In 2019, almost 1,000 music festivals took place in the U.K., attended by more than five million people and contributing £1.7 billion ($2.4 billion) to the economy, according to the umbrella industry association LIVE. Last year, all but a handful of socially distanced events were cancelled as a result of COVID-19, leading to a 90% fall in revenues.
This year has also seen the cancellation of more than a quarter of U.K. festivals with capacities of 5,000 or more, including Glastonbury, Download, BST Hyde Park and Bluedot, according to research cited by the committee.
Many more cancellations will follow if insurance is not immediately provided, with independent promoters and festivals hardest hit, the committee says. “Without the backing of large, transnational companies, they cannot take the financial risk,” says the final report. It goes on to criticize government ministers for refusing to “take multiple opportunities to address the market failure” around insurance provisions for live events.
Promoters are feeling the pressure. According to the Association of Independent Festivals, for a festival taking place in early July organizers will have paid around 40% of total costs by June 14 – the date when the government is due to announce whether restrictions are to be lifted one week later.
Without some form of insurance, "whatever happens with the reopening timetable, the vast majority of events could pull the plug in the coming weeks,” says Greg Parmley, the CEO of LIVE.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty, the U.K.’s vaccination effort -- which has so far seen 70% of British adults receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot – has given execs some cause for hope that Europe’s largest touring market will reopen by mid-summer, despite a recent rise in COVID-19 infections relating to the Indian variant.
Two of the U.K.’s biggest festivals — the 185,000-capacity dual-site Reading and Leeds festivals headlined by Liam Gallagher, Stormzy and Post Malone and the 70,000-capacity Creamfields — sold out their late-August dates. A number of other festivals that traditionally run between May and July, such as Isle of Wight, All Points East and Neighbourhood Weekender, have rescheduled to later in the summer.
Meanwhile, a 10,000-capacity, three-day "Download Pilot" festival run by Festival Republic/Live Nation — headlined by Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and Enter Shikari — is scheduled to take place at Donington Park, Derby June 18-20 as part of the second phase of the government's Events Research Program – a series of pilot concerts set up to provide scientific data on how small and large-scale events can safely resume.
The first phase of the program saw two club nights take place in Liverpool as well as a one-day music festival, headlined by Blossoms, in front of 5,000 fans. Ticket holders were encouraged to take a PCR test on the day of the event and a second one five days later. Having analyzed the data, public health officials found that the events did not cause any detectable spread of Covid-19 across the region.
Reflecting on the Events Research Program, the DCMS committee report said that despite initial positive data it was “not confident the pilots will deliver the evidence needed in time to lift all restrictions on live events from 21 June.”
Other recommendations made in the 40-page report include tougher measures requiring festivals to reduce their environmental impact and a change in legislation to allow illegal drug-checking services to operate lawfully at U.K. festivals.
The report also addresses some of the barriers that exist for British and European touring artists as a result of the U.K. leaving the European Union. It warns that tours and festivals are at risk “unless the Government finds a solution to Brexit-related costs and complexities.”
Ministers now have eight weeks to respond to the committee’s findings. Although they aren’t obliged to enact its recommendations, they are expected to engage with them.
NEWS
Harry Styles paid tribute to the late David Hockney and reflected on his time in One Direction last night (June 12), as he kicked off his record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium.
Hockney – whose painting of Styles was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2023 – died on June 11, aged 88, and the musician honoured him during his set by sharing a quote from the painter on the big screens.
“What an artist is trying to do for people is bring them closer to something, because of course art is about sharing,” the quote read. “You wouldn’t be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience, a thought.”
Styles’ gig last night marked the first of 12 gigs at Wembley, which will see the star break the record for the most shows at the venue in a single tour. Coldplay previously held the record, delivering 10 gigs at the stadium last year as part of their Music Of The Spheres tour.
The London residency follows the Together, Together tour beginning in Amsterdam in May, and will be followed by stops in São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne and Sydney. He will be supported by a different artist in each city, joined by Shania Twain in London, who delivered a set of hits and new tracks from her upcoming album, ‘Little Miss Twain’.
As the sounds of Simon And Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ played over the stadium PA, Styles made his way to the stage, kicking off his set with ‘Are You Listening Yet?’, from his latest album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’. Between renditions of ‘Golden’ and ‘Adore You’, he addressed the crowd for the first time, saying: “Our job tonight is to entertain you. Your job is to have as much fun as you possibly can.
“If you want to sing, if you want to dance, please feel free. Please feel free to be whoever it is you’ve always wanted to be tonight. We’ve got each other’s backs.”
Throughout the night, Styles subtly reworked some of the songs on the setlist. He dedicated ‘Taste Back’ “to all the ravers in the house”, as a snippet of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’ was interpolated into the song, while a brief burst of Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be The Place’ was introduced to ‘Treat People With Kindness’. During ‘Dance No More’, the pop star’s band played part of the groove from Happy Mondays’ ‘Step On’, while Styles sang a snatch of Gorillaz’s ‘Clint Eastwood’.
There were also nods to Styles’ days in One Direction early in the set. As the musician left the stage after ‘Fine Line’, the string section on stage played a medley featuring clips of the group’s hits ‘Night Changes’ and ‘History’, plus Styles’ own track ‘Falling’. After ‘Keep Driving’, he took the time to reflect on Wembley’s connections to his and the boyband’s journeys.
“Just outside of this building, just next door, is Wembley Arena, and 16 years ago, my sister brought me to London for the very first time for my X Factor audition,” he said. “So driving here today, and any time I come through Wembley, means so much to me, ‘cause right in that building next door, I was put into a band. We were called One Direction.
The Together, Together setlist features a different surprise song each night at the start of the encore. Last night, Styles treated the Wembley audience to ‘Little Freak’, taken from ‘Harry’s House’, for the first time since 2023. After the song, he spoke to the audience for the final time, saying: “I don’t know if you’ve been listening to me for a week, or a month, or a year, or five years, or 10 years, or 16 years, or whatever it is, but you have changed my life over and over again. Thank you so much for being here and allowing us to do these shows. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
“Finally, 16 years ago, my mother signed me up for the X Factor without my knowledge. I wouldn’t be here today if she hadn’t done that. She’s here today – thank you so much. You’ve changed my life, all of you.” Referencing a lyric in ‘Dance No More’, he added: “Remember – respect your mother.”
‘Are You Listening Yet?’
‘Golden’
‘Adore You’
‘Watermelon Sugar’
‘Music From A Sushi Restaurant’
‘Taste Back’
‘Coming Up Roses’
‘Fine Line’
‘Italian Girls’
‘American Girls’
‘Keep Driving’
‘Ready, Steady, Go!’
‘Dance No More’
‘Treat People With Kindness’
‘Pop’
‘Season 2 Weight Loss’
‘Carla’s Song’
‘Aperture’
‘Little Freak’
‘Sign Of The Times’
‘As It Was’
The Together, Together, London residency continues at Wembley Stadium tonight, with further dates on June 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 27, 29 and July 1, 3, and 4. Visit here for any remaining UK tickets and check out doors and stage times here.
The gigs will see Styles donate £1 from every ticket sold to LIVE’s levy to help protect UK grassroots music venues and support emerging talent, and before Styles’ headline performance, the big screens at the venue encouraged fans to support Music Venues Trust.
The tour is in support of the star’s latest album, ‘Kiss All The Time. Disco Occasionally’, which was released in March. In a four-star review, NME described it as “an album that you’ll really want to spend a lot of time with, letting all its layers envelope you”. It added: “It’s the most exploratory album of his career so far, trying out new things and steering his ship in new directions.”
Meanwhile, Styles has also curated this year’s Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre. The line-up chosen by the star includes Stephen Fretwell, Nilüfer Yanya, Orlando Weeks, Bar Italia, Dev Hynes, Jon Hopkins, Getdown Services, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy, Soulwax and more, as well as an intimate gig from Styles himself.
The festival kicked off earlier this week (June 11) with a performance from Los Angeles’ Warpaint, whose show was their first in nearly two years. During the gig, they shared fan favourites like ‘Love Is To Die, ‘Billie Holiday’ and ‘Disco//Very’, plus a cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’.
