Presently, we’re in the midst of festival season, and in the UK and Europe we’ve been spoilt for choice regarding our range of eventsand the fantastic musical outfits that they have played host to. Whilst this year marks the triumphant comeback of many festivals following two consecutive years of cancellations, COVID-19 has unfortunately reared its ugly head to pull some artists and bands away from these events in the last couple of months, even in what some would regard as a “post-pandemic” era.
Festivals that have been affected in recent weeks by this are Spain’s Primavera Sound and the greatly successful UK festival Glastonbury, the latter of which is not quite over yet. Primavera Sound was hit with a several cancellations very early on, with Clairo, PinkPantheress and Bleachers pulling out, and headliner The Strokes cancelling their June 3rd headline slot due to a COVID-19 case within their touring party. Thankfully for fans, the band would go on to perform on the second weekend of the event.
Glastonbury has been hit with a couple of sudden, unexpected cancellations (and near cancellations) these past few days as well. Firstly, legendary UK punk outfit The Damned were forced to cancel their appearance tonight (June 24th) due to several positive COVID tests, stating on Twitter: “Further to our previous updates, there have been more positive COVID tests in the Damned camp and consequently we’re having to withdraw from all remaining June appearances, including Bath, Glastonbury and the Die Artze show in Germany.” It has since been confirmed that Reef will be taking their place on the Avalon Stage.
Further to our previous updates, there have been more positive Covid tests in the Damned camp and consequently we’re having to withdraw from all remaining June appearances including Bath, Glastonbury and the Die Artze show in Germany…
— The Damned (@thedamned) June 21, 2022
In addition to this, The Chemical Brothers confirmed earlier this week that they would be performing a DJ set at Arcadia, however they have since had to cancel due to one half of the duo suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. Arcadia has since confirmed that Bonobo and Groove Armada will be filling the set time between 11pm and 1 am tonight. In a non-COVID related instance, London rockers Wolf Alice were nearly forced to cancel their Glastonbury set when their flight from LAX was cancelled, which you can read more about here. The band has since updated fans on Twitter, saying that they were waiting for a flight from Seattle that would go directly to London. The four-piece is scheduled to perform at 4:45pm today on The Pyramid Stage.
We r now waiting for a flight to Seattle where we can go direct to ldn from there https://t.co/3b5nH2uSrn
— Wolf Alice (@wolfalicemusic) June 23, 2022
