The Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, has revealed that the government will wait until the end of the lockdown before examining the viability of festival insurance.
As it stands, insurance companies are refusing to cover festivals if they cancel due to coronavirus. Therefore, festivals are risking everything if another wave of the virus forces them to cancel the event and even go bankrupt.
The lack of insurance has stopped over a quarter of UK festivals with a capacity of over 5,000 is not going ahead this summer. During the most recent DCMSC committee, Conservative MP Heather Wheeler asked Dowden about an update regarding insurance.
Dowden responded by stating we are currently “well on track” to reach ‘stage four’ of lockdown restrictions lifting on June 21. He added that after reaching stage four, they would then “look at” if assistance was still needed for music festivals.
Wheeler then told Dowden that it would be too late for organisers to get an event scheduled for this summer by the time lockdown restrictions were lifted.
.@OliverDowden tells @HeatherWheeler that if restrictions on events are lifted on 21 June and then lack of insurance remains last barrier to them going ahead, only then will Govt look at backing insurance as it did for film and TV.
