Christopher BarrettFestival Republic managing director Melvin Benn has told Access that a decision on the provision of a Government-backed cancelation insurance scheme for festivals will be announced within days.
Speaking today, 5 August, Benn said that he had had discussions with DCMS on multiple occasions within the past 24 hours and that he is hopeful a positive decision will be made in the coming days.
“I have to say that any delay is not due to a lack of effort from the DCMS and its staff because they really are working their socks off to get it done. My gut tells me that it will be done and announced before this article appears [11 August].”
On 1 July, secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Oliver Dowden said the Government was poised to provide cancelation insurance for the live event sector from 19 July, should the commercial market not be in a position to provide it.
A federation of 13 live music industry associations, Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment (LIVE) has said that due to the pandemic 56% of major music events had been forced to cancel for a second year running because the risk of running an uninsured event in the face of ever-changing Covid restrictions is too high.