Optimists in the live music sector are still hoping that the 2021 festival season will go ahead more or less as normal, though the ongoing COVID pandemic is obviously going to have an impact on those planning major outdoor events for next year, and how those events will be run. With that in mind, various trade organisations have come together to publish guidance for festival organisers to help with their ongoing event planning in the context of COVID.
The document has been spearhead by the Ops Group of the Association Of Independent Festivals, with support from the Association Of Festival Organisers, the Events Industry Forum and Attitude Is Everything, plus input from Public Health England and the government's Department For Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.
AIF says that the guidance, which will be updated monthly, will "assist festival organisers, safety advisory group members, local directors of public health and other industry parties in assessing risk levels and planning festivals based on a flexible, pragmatic and realistic approach to the current pandemic".
Launching the first iteration of the guidance document, AIF CEO Paul Reed says: "Risk mitigation is what festival promoters do for a living, so the intent of this guidance is to outline COVID-19 specific planning considerations that will allow for bespoke risk assessment approaches in liaison with relevant authorities and agencies".
"I'd like to thank the AIF Ops Group for leading on this important piece of work", he adds, "and also DCMS, PHE officials and the wider festival industry for their invaluable contributions".