UK festivals need just one thing in order to return for summer 2021 – insurance

Summertime usually means festivals: theatre, music, dance, art and much more. But can festival organisers really plan events for 2021? Many believe so - if the Government will agree to underwrite insurance.

In a letter to the Treasury, written by DCMS committee chair Julian Knight and signed by the group’s members, as well as more than 100 representatives from festivals and live events organisers, the industry urges Chancellor Rishi Sunak to act now, before it’s too late.

The letter says: “Without insurance, the events we know and love simply won’t take place this year – vaccine or no vaccine. Sustaining losses like those we’ve seen in 2020 for another year isn’t an option, and hundreds of businesses in the events supply chain have already been forced to fold. The government has backed insurance for the film and television industry to the tune of ￡500 million. It’s now time to do this for other creative industries.”

Signatories include organisers of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Brighton Festival and the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT). Kris Nelson, artistic director and CEO of LIFT, says that insurance is now one of the main concerns for the cultural sector.

“Initially, it was making sure the Government had plans to support businesses to stay afloat - that happened with the Culture Recovery Fund. Then there was a huge call to support freelancers, although that still hasn’t been addressed. The next step is: how do we build this cultural recovery?”

Having festivals take place in summer 2021 “will be so crucial for audiences. It’s an amazing way to bring us back in terms of mental health and social cohesion, whether it’s music, theatre, dance, literature, community or grassroots events. Festivals are a vital part of UK life.”

At the moment, he notes, “people all over the country are doing their best to not even leave their local area. They’re consuming culture online, or making it themselves. So if this summer is going to mark a moment of togetherness, instead of that isolation, festivals will play a key part.”

But, he stresses, “the only way for us to go forward is knowing we can plan - and having insurance to back us up, just in case. Otherwise, what happens if we get thrown another curve ball from the pandemic, like a new virus strain?

“Thinking back to autumn last year, when the vaccine came, there was a surge of hope in the cultural sector. Then we got this new, more infectious variant pushing the NHS to the brink, and everything changed. What we’re learning about this pandemic is that we assume it will all go in one direction, but that’s not the case.”

So, says Nelson, what happens in summer 2021 “if we all plan festivals, and then the virus takes another turn? Instead of people being able to explore city life again, they’d be back in lockdown. Those organisations planning and investing in events would die, and festivals would close.”

It’s a costly business, he points out. “Think about the thousands of workers who make festivals happen. Music festivals especially, but even for us at LIFT, when we cancelled our festival last year, we paid everyone involved, like the artists, technicians, crew and staff. That’s hundreds of thousands of pounds. We wouldn’t be able to do that again this year: shell out that amount of money for a festival we weren’t able to hold.”

Nelson says, if we’re to have festivals this summer, the Government would need to commit to an insurance scheme by the end of this month. “The format of insuance with no upfront investment, the model that’s used in response to terrorism, would work well.

“There’s a precedent already in law and policy, and the Treasury would have a maximum liability of ￡1.5 billion. It’s such a simple thing and it’s not a huge amount, but it would make all the difference. If they can support TV and film production with insurance, why not the rest of the sector?”

Otherwise, fears Nelson, “if we were to plan a similar LIFT event to last year and have to cancel, that would either place a terrible burden on all the freelancers who we’d employed and now wouldn’t be paid, or we’d have to cut staff, maybe even close the business.”

Neither can festivals stay frozen indefinitely. “You need that income to offset other projects or other years. And confidence ebbs away in the meantime.”

LIFT is a charity, and support from the Arts Council has “been incredible.” They’ve also received around ￡72,000 from the Culture Recovery Fund, which has “allowed us unfreeze hiring for three positions, commission works for 2021, and provided essential support.” Nelson plans to apply for the second round of funding, too, although that’s expected to be fiercely competitive.

The problem, he says, is “stopping everything in the cultural sector at once. It’s hard to start again unless you’ve got loads of reserves - and most of those have been depleted already over the past year. Ideally, we should be looking to forward the Recovery Fund investment with other initiatives and policies - like Government insurance-backed events being remounted.”

Mounting a festival is a major undertaking. LIFT is “medium-sized”, but still has an operating budget over two years of around “￡2 million, with the festival reaching something like 30,000 people.” But, says Nelson, think of the Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Festival or Glastonbury - “that’s a city worth of people getting employed and gathering together.”

It’s a boon to the Treasury too. “The festival industry in 2019 was worth ￡1.76 billion in gross receipts.” Plus, it stimulates the local economy: “hospitality, travel, getting tourists back.”

Nelson isn’t relying on the vaccine rollout timetable, but is instead thinking of festivals with social distancing for this year, “and aiming for more like the good old days in summer 2022.” He hasn’t yet set an exact date for LIFT’s return.

However, with its focus on international perspectives, LIFT faces another major hurdle: travel. “In order to book talent, sites and transport, everything needs extra planning - and we’re now looking at uncertainty and rigmarole around Brexit rules, and also Covid travel restrictions.

“With Brexit, we need clarity on freedom of movement for artists entering the UK and British artists entering Europe, and whether they need visas. And then the UK travel restrictions during the pandemic have been different to Europe, so that has an impact too.

“In previous years, we would partner with festivals in Germany or Belgium, so if an artist was crossing an ocean, we’d split the costs of their flight, and having several events to perform at would make it worth the artist’s time. We’d usually rent equipment from Europe too. All of this has been in place for so long. It’s a lot to unravel.”

On the positive side, Nelson has been “so struck by the ingenuity and inventiveness of the UK cultural sector. Given this incredible set of parameters, and with our livelihood taken away, people have created socially distanced events, hybrid digital-theatre shows, and kept giving audiences something to see, and putting people to work.

“So, this insurance scheme from the Government could be a very straightforward way to underwrite that experimentation and innovation, demonstrating the absolute faith that the sector will find a way to bring culture to audiences who deserve it.

“Even if festivals this summer are one-third the amplitude of a normal year, it will mean so much to people. By flicking a few levers, the Government can open up a whole new wave of cultural and economic recovery.”