Green Man festival ploughs ahead as slew of events across UK are cancelled

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Green Man music festival has announced that it will be going ahead in August but a number of other UK events have announced cancellations amid ongoing uncertainty for live music.

The festival, held in the Brecon Beacons in Wales on 19-22 August, will host Mogwai, Caribou, Fontaines DC, Thundercat and dozens more artists spanning indie, folk, jazz, pop, post-punk and electronic music. Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite welcomed the announcement, saying: “We’ve been looking forward to making a racket in the countryside for a long time.”

Attendees will need to have been double-vaccinated two weeks before their arrival or to show they have taken a negative lateral flow test within 48 hours of arriving.

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The announcement come after this week’s decision by the Welsh government to scrap most Covid rules from 7 August, as long as the public health situation allows. This would enable nightclubs to reopen and social distancing to end. Masks will still be required in most public spaces, but not schools, pubs and restaurants. They will not be required at Green Man.

The festival is not part of the government’s Events Research Programme, which this month will monitor the Tramlines festival in Sheffield and Latitude festival in Suffolk.

The festival could still face difficulties if public health worsens in Wales and, despite restrictions being lifted in England on 19 July to notionally allow music festivals to go ahead, there is still uncertainty around the staging of these events.

Boom Village, a spinoff of Boomtown festival due to take place near Winchester on 11-15 August, was cancelled this week, with organisers stating: “The core decision is due to the escalating cases of Covid-19 across the country, and the risks that widespread illness and self-isolation could have on our crew and contractors, which would result in us not having enough people to build and deliver the show to the high public safety standards we uphold.”

Cases of Covid-19 are rising sharply in the UK. One in 95 people in private households in England are thought to have been infected in the week to July 10, up from one in 160 in the previous week. The Office for National Statistics said the situation in Wales was uncertain.

In Scotland, one in 90 people are currently thought to have the virus. Restrictions are due to end on 9 August. On 19 July, the country will move to “level zero” of restrictions, which will enforce a 1 metre social distancing rule for indoor venues – a major difficulty for music festivals.

Doonhame festival in Dumfries, due to take place on 30-31 July and featuring Kaiser Chiefs, was cancelled on Friday. Organisers said: “The revised legislation announced this week demanding 1 metre physical distancing between attendees, makes it impossible to deliver the festival.”

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Party at the Palace, near Falkirk, had lined up Manic Street Preachers for 6-8 August but it has also been cancelled. Organisers said: “Only three weeks ago we were encouraged by Event Scotland and the Scottish government to continue planning the event. However, the lack of a UK government backed insurance policy has resulted in us having to now take this decision … In addition, our local authority’s interpretation of current government advice was that we would have to offer 7,500 customers table service for the bar.”

Throughout 2021, festival organisers have been lobbying the government to underwrite their festivals because insurers are not covering Covid-related cancellations, but no scheme has been announced.

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