Christopher BarrettVision Nine Presents has cancelled the 15,000-capacity NASS Festival in Somerset due to concerts its insurance policy would not cover against a reintroduction of Covid mitiagion measures.
The sold-out music and skateboard festival was due to take place at the Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallet on 23-26 September with a line up including The Streets, Headie One and Kano.
A spokesperson at Vision Nine, which also promotes the 50,000-capacity Boardmasters Festival, acknowledged that the Government had introduced an events cancellation insurance scheme but said it would not cover the festival against the cost of cancellation if guidelines around social distancing were changed.
Vision Nine issued the following statement: “With growing rumours that guidelines for events could change, talk of a lockdown and vaccine passports now due to come in at some point this month instead of October, it’s simply too big of a risk for us to try and go ahead.
“Festivals are big, complex beasts to run, with very high upfront costs. If we were to gamble, we run the risk of having to cancel a couple of days beforehand and taking a huge, eight figure financial hit. As an independent business and, after two years of not being able to run NASS, the financial burden this scenario would create is simply too much for us to bear.
“It would not only jeopardise the future of the show, but also put people’s livelihoods and jobs in danger.”