It’s believed that as many as 51 per cent of UK festivals with a minimum 50,000 capacity have now been cancelled due to uncertainty of the ongoing coronavirus situation.

The estimate was provided by The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) following the results of their recent survey, which revealed that at least half of the association’s membership who had yet to cancel were still planning to push on with their events later this year while 22 per cent are currently unsure.

The survey was released earlier this month after the final stage of unlocking COVID-19 restrictions was delayed by the government. The final stage was intended to allow for large-scale events to go ahead as long as all the correct safety measures were in place.

The government was meant to publish the early results from its Events Research Programme (ERP) pilot events ahead of final unlocking, in order to give festival organisers the appropriate time to prepare for their events. However, the results are still yet to be released, leading to the threat of legal action by some high-profile figures if the data isn’t released soon.

Although yesterday June 24th the government claimed that the data will be published “shortly” so we will have to wait and see if they follow through on their claim. There have been question marks over the UK government’s handling of the situation which has led to accusations that they are “pushing live music off a cliff-edge”, and endangering the future of the industry through their failure to publish the results.

It is felt by many that the government is not doing enough to support the arts so much so that AIF CEO Paul Reed claimed that “This is an existential issue; the 2021 season is collapsing without decisive Government action and there is a real risk of these festivals not returning.”

Reed could well be right as on top of the government cancelling the festivals the bodies that support them could also greatly suffer. The AIF members are estimated to have spent an average of £451,500 on festival planning for 2021 to date, with costs ranging from £5,000 to as much as £4million. While the organisers have spent, on average, 25 per cent of their overall costs. The survey covered festivals that took place from July 23-September 26 with capacities between 5,000 and 70,000.