More and more festival CEO’s are coming forward with more hope that we will see a return to a summer of festivals in time for 2021. Live Nations President, Joe Berchtold, is one of the more recent members of the festival world to come forward with a glimpse of hope for the return of the music scene saying ” We start to see with much greater clarity what the path to return to live is”. This is a very likely future for the UK with the vaccine already starting to be rolled out to the public.
Berchtold has said he feels “very good” about the future of festivals and their eventual return in the summer. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic this year, festivals and the whole music industry as a whole has been hit hard with continuing difficulty. Artists and other industry professionals have been hit with the of loosing up to half their income seeing the overall net worth plummet to £3 billion. In late November (24/11/2020) at that point with the Covid vaccine on its way the UK saw a glimmer of hope as UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced he had hope for a return to normal life by easter of 2021.
This year we missed out on a lot on the festival front. Not only did fans and regular festival-goers miss their summer of music and fun but there was a significant festival event that was missed. Glastonbury, one of the UK’s most popular and well known festival was meant to celebrate its 50th year anniversary before the global pandemic took its course with it and stopped the event in its tracks. It is unclear whether or not they will still hold the 50th anniversary but regardless of that, I’m sure that there will be a big celebration at all festivals.
Earlier in the year it was hard to imagine how we would be able to enjoy festivals again in the light of the pandemic. However, now with the vaccine being rolled out to the UK public, it’s very easy to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hancock has said he’s hopeful for festivals in the summer but still advises to take restrictions seriously “We’re going to have a summer next year that everybody can enjoy, between now and then we’ve got to hold our resolve. We passed the tiering arrangements through the Commons with a big majority last night. Let’s all respect the restrictions we have to live our lives in for now.”
Before the news of the vaccine being ready, festival heads were ready to put measures in place to protect attendees for next summer. Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis said that “massive testing arrangements” could be put in place next year. Reading & Leeds boss Melvin Benn told NME that he was confident that “we don’t need a vaccination because we can work through the problem with a really good testing regime”.
