The Welsh music festival the Green Man festival will go ahead this year, unlike many other UK festivals which have chosen to cancel their events in the face of ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. The move was a announced this week, following the Welsh Government’s decision to scrap most regulations from the 7th of August to allow the economy and society to open back up, hopefully for the last time.

Other festivals of a similar size, such as UK Boomtown spin off Boom Village, have decided not to go ahead, stating that “The core decision is due to the escalating cases of Covid-19 across the country, and the risks that widespread illness and self-isolation could have on our crew and contractors, which would result in us not having enough people to build and deliver the show to the high public safety standards we uphold.”

The Green Man festival, founded by Jo and Danny Hagan in 2003, takes place annually in the Brecon Beacons in Wales from the 19th-22nd August. The festival will host a wide range of artists including Mogwai, Caribou, Fontaines DC, and Thundercat, as well as other artists spanning the genres of indie, folk, jazz, pop, post-punk and electronic music. Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai was delighted at the announcement, stating that “We’ve been looking forward to making a racket in the countryside for a long time.”

Wales has been doing better than England in terms of cases and contaminants, hence more optimistic projections for large and live events to be able to go ahead. 

All attendees will have to provide proof that they have been double vaccinated at least two weeks before the event takes place, but the festival will not require masks to be worn.  The festival is not one of the events making up the government’s testing programme, meaning data will not be collected from the event to analyse how it affects the spread of coronavirus.