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Isle of Wight festival organisers say that they hope to bring back as many artists as they can for the later dates
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 05 Mar 2021
The Isle of Wight festival will take place in September rather than June Credit: Associated Press
Organisers of the Isle of Wight (IOW) festival have announced that it will go ahead in 2021 but have pushed its original June dates to September.
The festival, held at Seaclose Park in Newport, UK, was originally planned for 17-20 June but has been moved to 16-19 September, 2021.
The date change follows the announcement of the UK government’s ‘roadmap out of lockdown’ plans, which aims to have all UK lockdown restrictions lifted by June 21, 2021.
Headliners for the original IOW dates included Lewis Capaldi, Lionel Richie and Duran Duran.
“We’re aiming to bring back as many of the artists as we can,” IOW organisers said.
Download cancellation
Meanwhile Download festival has cancelled its event for the second year in a row.
Download, the UK’s largest rock event attracting 80,000 attendees per year, announced that it would be cancelling its 2021 festival in early March. Organisers said they were ‘heartbroken’, but promised ticket-holders that their tickets would roll over to the 2022 festival. Download’s 2022 lineup was also revealed, with acts such as Kiss, Iron Maiden and Biffy Clyro headlining.
The Barcelona-based festival Primavera Sound has also cancelled its 2021 event, which was scheduled to run at the beginning of June and was set to profile acts such as Tame Impala, Tyler the Creator and Bad Bunny. Organisers described the cancellation as a “painful decision”.
Cautious optimism
Organisers with events planned later in the summer, however, seem to be more optimistic about being able to go ahead this year.
“We’re enthusiastic, we’re excited and we’re certain that it’s going to go ahead,” Reading & Leeds festival boss Melvin Benn told The Guardian.
Scheduled for the August bank holiday weekend, Reading is already completely sold out, while Leeds only has limited one-day tickets remaining, showing that both consumer confidence and demand is high.
Ticket sales and distribution website Ticketmaster has also reported a 600% spike in traffic, since the government’s announcement on how the UK’s restrictions are being lifted.
Additionally, a new YouGov survey showed that half of the UK population would like to attend a live event in summer 2021, while 75% believe live events form a crucial part of British culture.
Insurance issues
While it does seem likely that at least some live events will be able to go ahead in 2021, there are still some roadblocks that organisers will have to overcome. Reading councillor Graeme Hoskin told the Reading COVID-19 Engagement Board that Reading Festival “is going to be a major item for our licensing department and various other national bodies to consider, but nothing has been agreed by the council.”
Government-supported COVID-19 cancellation insurance for large-scale events is also still proving an issue. Currently, this kind of insurance doesn’t exist, however, the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) and other industry professionals have called for a government-backed scheme to be implemented to safeguard the future of the live events industry.
“There is still the chance of widespread cancellations if data around COVID cases does not meet the government’s requirements and lockdown easing is delayed,” the AIF told BBC.
“It’s still an enormous risk for any independent festival to commit costs and proceed.”
This is not the first time the UK government has been called on for such a scheme, in January, members of the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport heard that government-supported COVID-19 cancellation insurance was crucial to the future of UK music festivals.
“Insurance is the most critical factor that will enable us to plan festivals,” said Paul Reed, CEO of AIF.
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