Christopher BarrettOrganisers of the 40,000-capacity world music festival WOMAD said the event will go ahead on 22-25 July.
With international travel to and from the UK currently restricted, the line-up will mainly be made up of UK-based artists “reflecting musical and artistic traditions from all over the world”.
The UK acts will be announced on 12 April, and as restrictions are lifted it is hoped that international acts will be added to the line-up, and a further announcement is expected around 17 May.
Organisers said they are having ongoing consultations with licensing and public health authorities to understand and implement the measures required for the festival to take place safely. Additional space will be made available during the event in areas of the site including the campsite and the arena.
WOMAD’s operators issued a statement explaining that the event’s audience capacity this year is under review: “In the first instance, tickets will be sold in batches with additional batches added as the consultation proceeds. The final capacity will be settled after on-going consultation and will reflect the increased space available in the site and the licensing guidelines.”
WOMAD director Chis Smith told Access that his aim is to run the event with a full capacity if guidance allows: “We are licensed for 40,000 but the site has a capacity of about 60,000. We are having conversations with authorities and on our list is do we need to reduce capacity or do we just need to rearrange the furniture to create more space?
“We haven’t made a decision on capacity yet. The guidance would suggest that we don’t need to reduce capacity but if it becomes a safety issue or health issues then clearly that would be something we would explore, but we have so much space at Charlton Park it is not a problem for us.”
The WOMAD team is discussing the possibility of following the schools’ model and the upcoming DCMS test events of offering home-based Lateral Flow Tests both before and after the festival.
WOMAD said that the tests may be sold at cost price, and that festivalgoers who have a ticket and test positive will be refunded in full or have their ticket rolled over to 2022.”
Three-day tickets for the festival, which takes place at Charlton Park in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, are priced £185.
The full interview with Chris Smith will be published shortly.