Analysis
UK LIVE INDUSTRY HITS BACK AS BRITISH GOV STALLS ON RETURN
Download was able to host 10,000 guests for a weekend camping festival, as part of the UK’s test event programme
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n mid-June, the British government confirmed that live entertainment businesses would have to endure another month of closure, after deciding that the 21 June date on its roadmap to recovery should be delayed while it deals with the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19. The devastating decision places numerous businesses in jeopardy, wiping an estimated 5,000 concerts, festivals and events from the calendar and costing the UK industry hundreds of millions of pounds in lost revenues. The music industry, as well as theatre businesses, have repeatedly called on the government to outline the scientific basis for its decision to maintain restrictions on events. “The Events Research Programme (ERP) pilot events were supposed to be the key to getting back to full-capacity live performance, and we understand that there were only 15 cases out of 58,000 attendees – although government is refusing to either publish the full report or to allow the sector to open up with the carefully planned precautions, which we have been planning and putting in place for months,” says Lucy Noble, chair of the National Arenas Association. Despite portions of the ERP economic impact assessment being leaked to the media, the govern-
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ment refused calls from many MPs in a debate on Tuesday, 22 June to release the report in full. Live music industry body LIVE (Live music Industry Venues and Entertainment) and a range of theatre businesses have now commenced legal proceedings against the UK government to force it to hand over the report from the ERP. Stuart Galbraith, CEO of Kilimanjaro Live and co-founder of LIVE, said: “The live music industry has been very willing to work with government for the last year to show that our industry can operate safely. But it is intolerable that after running pilot shows for the government’s ERP, at our own cost, we have been blocked from seeing the results, leaving the whole sector in limbo with the real chance that the entire summer could collapse for the second year running. “Even now, the live music sector has no idea
what the rest of the summer brings, and we are left with a complete inability to plan ahead due to the government’s continued unwillingness to provide some form of insurance to enable events to move forward.” While the lawsuit focuses on forcing the government to release the findings of its pilot programme, the legal papers also criticise the lack of guidance for the forthcoming final stage of reopening, provisionally scheduled for 19 July. Several UK festivals, including Kendal Calling, Truck, and Let’s Rock, have cited the non-release of the ERP data and lack of guidance as two reasons for cancelling their 2021 events. The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) estimates that 51% of all UK festivals 5,000 cap and over have now been cancelled.
“The Events Research Programme (ERP) pilot events were supposed to be the key to getting back to full-capacity live performance, and we understand that there were only 15 cases out of 58,000 attendees” Lucy Noble | National Arenas Association
