two months

GOVERNMENTS ESTABLISH FINANCIAL SAFETY NET FOR FESTIVALS

The Norwegian government has become the latest European power to commit funds to support a return to live events – creating a NOK350million (€34m) cancellation insurance fund for festivals that should allow organisers to plan for this summer without the financial risk posed by a potential Covid outbreak.

Norway’s minister of culture, Abid Raja, announced in a press conference in early February that the financial safety net will help organisers plan for July and August.

“[The insurance pot is] to create predictability now, so that the industry can start planning different scenarios and be confident that if things go wrong, we will stand up for them,” said Raja during the conference.

“We must plan for all scenarios so that the festival industry and the summer industry will have security that there is a minimum of safety nets here.

“As of now, it is impossible to predict whether it will be possible to have 200, 1,000 or 5,000 people at events this summer. We do not know,” he adds.

Norway has taken note from Germany’s €2.5billion pot, Austria’s €300m ‘protective umbrella’ and the Netherlands’ €300m fund.

The Norwegian government is also in the process of compensating organisers and subcontractors that were financially impacted by the Norwegian government’s ban on live events, which was extended into late 2020, causing the cancellation of the country’s biggest festivals.

Live Nation Norway, All Things Live, and Tons of Rock will benefit from the latest round of compensation from the Norwegian government’s scheme for organisers and subcontractors in the cultural sector.

The scheme, funded by the ministry of culture and distributed by Norway’s cultural council (Kulturradet), has so far paid out approximately NOK1.4bn to more than 2,000 applicants across various compensation schemes for 2020.

For the latest tranche, which covers the period of May to August 2020, the cultural council is distributing more than NOK120m (€11.7m) to some of the biggest players in Norway’s festival sector.

Elsewhere, the Flemish government has designated a total of €60m to help the region’s organisers kickstart preparations for this summer’s festival season.

Flemish minister of economy, Hilde Crevits, has allocated €50m in repayable advances for the broader events sector “to get the engine going and offer insurance against the risk of organising an event in uncertain times,” she says. This is in addition to the €43m worth of repayable loans Crevits has already released, which went to 150 organisers including music festivals such as Sfinks, Laundry Day and Gent Jazz.

For the new round of funding, the maximum amount an organiser can apply for has been raised from €800,000 to €1.8m, and larger organisations will be eligible to apply this time.

All events that secure funding must comply with the measures applicable at the time they take place and, according to De Tijd , in most cases, the advance is non-refundable if the event is cancelled.

The remaining €10m from the €60m pot – allocated by Flemish minister of tourism, Zuhal Demir – will subsidise Covid measures for small music festivals, such as the construction of rapid-test villages, additional entrances and exits, or the rental of a larger site.

“Smaller events with a total cost of at least €250,000 can count on the support of up to €75,000, while larger players with budgets of at least €7.5m can count on support of up to €500,000,” says Demir.

The grants application process is already open via government-funded Event Flanders. Organisers can combine both types of support.

“Smaller events with a total cost of at least €250,000 can count on the support of up to €75,000, while larger players with budgets of at least €7.5m can count on support of up to €500,000”

Zuhal Demir | Flemish minister of tourism

MAJOR MARKETS PAVE THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

Indoor performances are expected to return to music venues across England towards the end of May, provided the country’s Covid-19 response is going as planned, prime minister Boris Johnson announced on 22 February.

Johnson has set out a “cautious” fourstep roadmap for the reopening of society, with at least five weeks between each step. The first step commences on 8 March, when children will return to schools, while outdoor gatherings of either six people or two households will be allowed from no earlier than 29 March.

Step two, which will commence no earlier than 12 April, will see non-essential retail and outdoor hospitality open without curfew.

Step three, expected to launch no earlier than 17 May, will see music venues, sports stadiums, cinemas, pubs, restaurants and other hospitality businesses welcome people indoors subject to social distancing and capacity limits, depending on the size of the venue.

Indoor performances will be restricted to the lower of 1,000 people or 50% capacity; outdoor performances limited to the lower of either 4,000 people or 50% capacity; and seated outdoor performances, to either 10,000 people or 25% of capacity.

The final step, which will start no earlier than 21 June, will see the government lift all restrictions, allowing nightclubs to reopen and large events to take place “above the limits of step three.”

However, the PM has stipulated that to move from one stage to the next, four conditions will need to be met: first, that the vaccine deployment programme continues successfully. Second, that evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths.

Third, that infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations, which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS. And fourth, that the government’s assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new variants of Covid that cause concern.

In Germany, German alliance Event Management Forum (EMF) has presented a proposal titled Manifest Restart, which details a uniform approach to the gradual and safe reopening of events.

The Alliance – which consists of five major organisations including live music associations BDKV and LiveKomm – has devised an ‘approval matrix’ to help organisers and authorities determine in which risk levels, under which general and special measures of infection protection and hygiene, and with which capacities events are permitted.

The comprehensive matrix takes into account a range of nuances in venues such as different construction methods, special features of event formats or existing ventilation systems.

The alliance presented Manifest Restart during a press conference on 9 February, in which Jens Michow, president of the BDKV, emphasised that the goal of the matrix is to make events “the safest place in the pandemic.”

“The industry has shown in the past year that events can be implemented safely. With the following suggestions we show the way to a step-bystep achievement of this goal and finally create a perspective for the industry again,” the proposal reads.

FRENCH FESTIVALS HAVE THEIR FATE SEALED

France is the first major European market to deliver a framework for this summer’s festival season.

French festivals – both indoor and outdoor – are permitted to take place this summer but attendance will be restricted to 5,000 spectators, who must be seated and socially distanced.

The minister for culture, Roselyne Bachelot, announced the framework on 18 February along with a €30million fund, which will compensate organisers – both for losses incurred due to the implementation of alternative formats, and in the event that festivals are cancelled due to an increasing Covid-19 infection rate.

Bachelot has committed to a monthly consultation meeting with festivals to adapt the framework according to the development of France’s health situation, but France’s live sector already has many questions that have gone unanswered.

AEG Presents France GM and VP, Arnaud Meerseeman, told IQ: “I feel it’s essentially an act of political communication to gain some time with the sector. The framework is very loose. There is no detail on the timeline of this decision: ie when does ‘summer’ start and end? From what point does this apply? Does this cover festivals in August/September?”

France’s trade union, the SMA (Syndicat des Musiques Actuelles), said: “At the present time and under the conditions announced by [Bachelot], we cannot say that festivals will be held this summer because, for a major part of our audiences, our artists and our teams, a seated event bringing together 5,000 maximum people, perhaps without access to the bar or the restaurant, cannot be called a festival.”

French metal festival Hellfest Open Air (cap. 60,000) informed IQ that this year’s event is cancelled due to the uncertainty around the health situation and the government regulations.

Organiser Ben Barbaud says, “Unlike other festivals, we make the hard choice not to accept these overly restrictive rules. It would go against the very DNA of the festival. We owe our festival-goers consistency in the project we want to offer them and for which they have agreed to pay a high price.”

Glass Museum performed at Rockhal’s test show series © Claude Piscitelli

LIVE SECTORS ‘TEST’ THE WATERS WITH PILOT SHOWS

Five test concerts took place in Luxembourg at Rockhal arena’s club venue between 10-14 February, under the banner Because Music Matters.

Audiences were limited in capacity to 100 people each night, with allocated seats set up around a central stage to ensure a certain level of proximity to the stage while ensuring social distancing controls were in place throughout the venue. Attendees had to wear masks at all times whilst inside the venue, and every participant and audience member was tested before and after each show.

Other safety precautions included contactless audience security screening and access control and guidance inside the venue. The series is hosted in conjunction with the national health inspection authority. Full results from the experiment are expected in around two weeks.

A short behind-the-scenes video from the

Rockhal test concerts was screened as part of the Arena Resilience Alliance (ARA)’s second virtual conference, A Game of Two Halves: The

Return Leg.

Luxembourg’s minister of culture, Sam Tanson, delivered an introductory keynote on the tests, in which she praised the efforts of Rockhal and Luxembourg’s health authority, saying she felt these tests were “very important” and showed the potential for live events to return with the “appropriate measures” in place.

Olivier Toth, EAA board member, ARA co-founder and CEO of Rockhal, says: “After almost a year without live events, experiments like our Because Music Matters showcase and other test events that have been taking place across Europe are an important and positive step forward in testing the safety measures we can employ to support our back-to-business strategies, building confidence among all our stakeholders that live events are a safe environment is so important.

“We were pleased to share initial feedback from the experiment at the ARA conference and we look forward to reviewing the findings fully, with a view to building towards a model that can be scaled as the industry continues to work towards the safe and sustainable return of live events.”

In the Netherlands, more than 60,000 people have applied for the 1,500 tickets available for the two experimental festivals being organised as part of the Netherlands’ Back to Live initiative.

Two music festivals – a dance music event and a rock/pop festival – will take place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 March, respectively, on the Lowlands site in Biddinghuizen, in the central Netherlands, as part of a wide-ranging, government-backed study that aims to show how live events may be restarted safely.

Pieter Lubberts, programme manager at Fieldlab, which is organising the trial shows, told Dutch TV presenter Eva Jinek that around 63,000 people had applied to attend the festivals, which each have a capacity of 1,500.

“It is clear that people really need this. It really exploded,” said Lubberts. Successful applicants will be selected by a lottery draw, he added.

The first Back to Live event, Back to Live Business, which simulated a conference environment, took place at Utrecht’s Beatrix Theatre on 15 February with 500 people. Future shows include a dance event and concert at the Ziggo Dome arena on 6 and 7 March, and the two festivals.

Participants in Back to Business, which was attended by Mona Keijzer, the Netherlands’ minister for economic affairs and climate policy, were required to test negative for the coronavirus in advance, with some also undergoing rapid tests on the door along with temperature checks. During the event, contact between attendees was measured by motion sensors, and all are required to have another test five days after the conference.

Elsewhere, French minister for culture, Roselyne Bachelot said that France’s upcoming test concerts will admit participants who tested positive for Covid-19 before the event.

Bachelot appeared on French news channel LCI on 15 January to discuss the upcoming experiments, which are spearheaded by a new working group, and revealed that positive cases “will not be filtered because you have to put yourself in a situation where there will be a mixing.”

A number of similar experiments have taken place across Europe, including Germany’s Restart-19 and Spain’s Primacov, but the tests in France would be the first to allow entry for Covid-positive participants.

According to the culture minister, two tests will take place at The Dome (cap. 8,500), Marseille, in the second half of March with 1,000 spectators who will be “seated with the possibility of getting up.”

Participants will be tested beforehand and will be required to wear masks and use antibacterial gel.

The Marseille concerts will be organised by Béatrice Desgranges of the city’s flagship festival, Marsatac, who is also a member of France’s live music trade body, SMA (Syndicat des musiques contemporaries).

The protocols for the tests have been validated by Inserm (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) and the Scientific Council of Professor Delfraissy.

The Paris experiment will take place at the AccorHotels Arena (cap. 20,300) in April, with 5,000 participants, under the guidance of the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, says Bachelot.

“I am very optimistic about festivals and seated shows. For standing shows, it’s more complicated,” the culture minister told LCI.

The minister also revealed that the experiments would be reviewed during an international conference in Marseille on 8 April.

VACCINE PASSPORTS GAIN TRACTION ACROSS THE GLOBE

Governments in Denmark, Poland, Iceland, Australia and Sweden have confirmed they will issue citizens with a vaccine certificate, or ‘passport,’ when they have been immunised against Covid-19, as the idea gains traction across the continent.

While the issuing of vaccine passports is largely aimed at restarting cross-border travel, there are hopes the live music industry could also benefit, with promoters and venues able to Covid-safe their shows by requiring proof-of-vaccine status for all those attending.

At the end of January, Iceland became the first European country to issue and recognise

Covid-19 vaccination certificates to enable international travel for those inoculated against coronavirus.

Since early in the pandemic, the country has required a minimum five-day quarantine for international arrivals and now those with documentation showing they have received a full course of

Covid-19 vaccines will be able to skip quarantine.

Also in January, the Polish deputy health minister Anna Goławska revealed that, after being successfully vaccinated (which, in the case of the

Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, is after the second jab), people will be issued with an electronic QR code downloadable from their personal account on the government website or public health system.

The Swedish government followed suit shortly afterwards, revealing plans to launch a digital coronavirus vaccine passport by this summer.

During a press conference on 4 February, Sweden’s minister for energy and digital development, Anders Ygeman, said: “When Sweden and countries around us start to open up our societies again, vaccination certificates are likely to be required for travel and possibly for taking part in other activities.

“[The digital infrastructure] will make the vaccination certificate more secure, simple and international,” he says.

The Swedish government is aiming to have the digital vaccine passport in place by 1 June and has pledged to offer the Covid-19 vaccination to all adults before Midsummer (the final weekend of June), depending on the availability of vaccines.

Sweden’s live music association, Svensk Live, says the passport “would be a piece of the puzzle in the work of being able to reopen concerts and festivals this summer.”

In Denmark, festival organisers have been given a glimmer of hope after the government announced the spring arrival of a vaccine passport.

Denmark’s acting minister of finance, Morten Bødskov, announced in a press conference on 3 February that digital coronavirus passports will be ready for use in three to four months but will initially apply only to travel.

According to Bødskov, whether the digital passport can be used to go to a concert or a festival is a political discussion that will be decided by the infection situation.

“The corona passport is an important tool that can be crucial in reopening the live industry,” says Esben Marcher, head of Dansk Live. “It is positive that a digital corona passport is now being established. It can be crucial in ensuring that we can quickly reopen venues and hold festivals when the summer comes.”

In Australia, ahead of the nationwide rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, the government has announced that all vaccinations will be recorded on the Australian Immunisation Register, and certificates would then be available digitally via the Express Plus Medicare app or in hard copy through the vaccination provider or Services Australia.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told ABC National Radio it is “highly likely” that such documentation will be needed for international travel into the country.

The Greek government wrote to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to urge the adoption of vaccine passports at an EU level, though experts believe the idea to have little chance of success, with vaccine-sceptical countries such as France already having ruled out such a move.

While in Portugal, music festivals are looking into the possibility of restricting entry to ‘bubbles’ of vaccinated fans as a way of enabling their events to go ahead safely this summer.

A proposal to create infection-free “safe bubbles,” comprising fans “who are already vaccinated against Covid-19 [and carrying] their vaccination records,” was presented to the Portuguese government by the Association of Promoters, Shows, Festivals and Events (APEFE) in a meeting with the minister of culture, Graça Fonseca, on 15 January.

The meeting, also attended by the Association of Portuguese Music Festivals (Aporfest) and the new Association of Show Agents and Producers (AEAPP), also led to the creation of an industry-government working group that aims to find a solution to restarting live entertainment in Portugal in 2021.

“The corona passport is an important tool that can be crucial in reopening the live industry. It can be crucial in ensuring that we can quickly reopen venues and hold festivals when the summer comes”

Esben Marcher | Dansk Live