SXSW cancelled

Krasnyi's picture Submitted by Krasnyi on

Forums: 
General Discussion

Don't want to be a scaremonger but I hope all UK festivals are adequately insured.

Nathan replied on

Is that really how things work? I was presuming that festivals would carry insurance that covered situations where the governemnt ordered cancellation regardless of the reason why. 

jedthehumanoid's picture jedthehumanoid replied on

Is Bearded Theory the earliest 'big' festival of the year? My folks go to the Acoustic Festival in Uttoxeter every year and they're hoping it'll be OK - that's at the end of May. Liverpool Sound City is quite early in the year too. Seems inevitable that a few will be called off.

blackcatista's picture blackcatista replied on

Some of those weekenders they hold at Butlins etc will need to be cancelled, I guess. I was thinking about PZYK (the new incarnation of Liverpool Psych Fest) in May but will hold off before making a decision on that.

blackcatista's picture blackcatista replied on

Suspect things will be fine by mid-August but can't see Glastonbury happening, tbh. Would imagine for Green Man one of the biggest problems will be getting bands- some tours will be cancelled and other bands will decide to stay at home and do some recording rather than plan a tour that might not happen. 

Guess they could do festivals behind closed doors like the football...

Nathan replied on

Yeah, the (imminent) strategy is to slow the spread, which is to say, to drag it out. That said, I can't see large scale cancelleations of events. More likely will be spatially and temporally localised ramping up of restrictions based on spread and hospital capacity. It will be a tricky balencing act. 

blackpumpkinhead replied on

My next festival is Focus Wales with 20 indoor stages with performers from all over the world in eary May--looking iffy i would have thought.

Someone asked Bearded Theory about Coronavirus and they said they were covered in the event of cancellation.

jedthehumanoid's picture jedthehumanoid replied on

I was hoping to get to a few of these gigs too but I'm pretty sure this will get cancelled, at least in part. Maybe some of the UK bands will be able to play but I guess it all depends on what advice is given regarding public gatherings over the next few weeks.

Social distancng is pretty much my default setting but I do like to get out every now and again.

decemberboy replied on

If Green Man does have to be cancelled then the local economy will take another battering so soon after the floods. Hopefully by August everything will have calmed down. 

Nathan replied on

Yeah, I was thinking that whilst the festival itself might not incurr massive losses, the traders are likely to take a hit in terms of loosing a weekends / a months/ a seasons trade. 

Krasnyi's picture Krasnyi replied on

Given that it's clear that Covid-19 cannot be contained, the thinking seems to be to manage it over a longer period of time with the potential peak of cases being in the summer. I think we have to accept the vrey real possibility that all festivals may be in doubt this summer.

Krasnyi's picture Krasnyi replied on

First of many. Don't think there's much chance of Glastonbury going ahead. Hope that GM are busy investing in copious hand-washing facilities though frankly I'm not optimistic about any festivals going ahead this year.

peridot's picture peridot replied on

Primavera Barcelona reported to be attempting a reschedule for the end of August.

Unfortunately that puts my much loved Porto subset on the same weekend as End of the Road :-(

smithers replied on

Getting grimmer by the day. Chap that runs efestivals of the opinion that the whole summer will be a write off. Assuming that SKM will cancel his tour before long too.

Krasnyi's picture Krasnyi replied on

Maybe i take a pessimistic view of these things, it comes with living with someone who works for the NHS, but I seriously think you can forget the entire festival season this year. The expected peak in cases in the UK is June and then we're talking several months of hopefully declining numbers of cases. It would be massively irresponsible to go ahead with large gatherings at which sanitation is notoriously an issue. Hopefully we'll be through the worst of it after next winter, then we can start thinking about gigs and festivals again. Hope I'm wrong.

jedthehumanoid's picture jedthehumanoid replied on

I'd call that realistic rather than pessimistic. We've got tickets for things in May and a holiday booked in April - we're not expecting to get to any. Luckily not much planned beyond that but it seems like the whole year just needs to be written off in terms of events.

Krasnyi's picture Krasnyi replied on

We'll need to start a new thread - 'who do we want to see in 2021'.

Just think - not long ago all we were worried about was gazebos.

And Brexit.

blackpumpkinhead replied on

Focus Wales moved from May to October.

Glastonbury is unique due to its size,it takes a very long time to set up---so still clinging on to the hope that GM and EOTR go ahead.

ray_rad's picture ray_rad replied on

yes - suspect you're right

talk in emily eavis's announcement about 'thousands' of crew on site for 'months' - so quite a different proposition

it is a case of when to cut your losses, though, of course

you don't want to cancel the week before - or really the month before - even for something the size of GM

the whole thing may come tumbling down based on overseas acts' willingness to hold their diaries open

i'm very glad not to be in the music business right now

though know plenty of folks who are - most of them with their heads in their hands

Mikey's picture Mikey replied on

Green man has just sent an email and posted message on Facebook.

just says they are planning on going ahead but discussing situation with government and aware may be cancelled. If so, refunds or transfer ticket to 2021.  Cannot argue with that and for me, either way I will not be asking for a refund.

Elizabeth McEvoy's picture Elizabeth McEvoy replied on

At the very least, if we hang on to our tickets until next year, we won't get shafted with extortionate booking fees, which would have been unlikely to be included in a refund. 

jedthehumanoid's picture jedthehumanoid replied on

I was putting off getting a ticket until the second announcement was made, I'd be suprised if that announcement ever comes to be honest. Rolling tickets over for next year if needs be seems a fair way of handling the situation, it could theoretically mean 2021 is sold out before an act is announced though if no-one requests a refund. It might be 2022 before I get back to Glanusk!

Wakestock replied on

I see that Primavera Sound in Barcelona has been rescheduled for end of August. Considering the current situation in Spain, are they being overly optimistic, or might this be a realistic hope? If so perhaps Green Man might still go ahead, but I’m not feeling overly confident that’s likely to be honest. 

Krasnyi's picture Krasnyi replied on

I'm with you on that. August seems very optimistic. I'd love to think that come the 17th I'd be sunning myself/shelterig from the rain in Glanusk but Im wrking on the assumption I won't.

blackcatista's picture blackcatista replied on

Having initially thought they'll try extra hard to make it happen, I can't see how it could realistically happen this August. Even if the spread of the virus is under control, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a longer term ban on international travel, for example, which would rule out half the acts. I'd also imagine if we're still all locked down for a couple of months that'll really hit preparation work too? 

Krasnyi's picture Krasnyi replied on

Cambridge Folk Festival, scheduled for end of July, is off. I'd expect an announcement from Green Man within the next week or so.

smithers replied on

200yds down the road from me, not that I was going this year. I know it's for the best in the grand scheme of things and there are much more important things to worry about but this would have been my 10th GM, a week camping either side at Talybont, I bloody love that part of Wales, and in an ideal world would probably live there, hey ho...

ray_rad's picture ray_rad replied on

i was talking last week with the manager of a pretty big artist (work related - but not music work, sadly)

who said they've cancelled everything live until next year

that even if live events are possible later this year, he assumes people won't be psychologically ready to go to them

and the infrastructure just won't be there anyway

2020 is essentially a write-off

Krasnyi's picture Krasnyi replied on

Still got my Pictish ticket for March next year and thinking if I get to a gig before then it will be a bonus.

Taking of gigs, Richard Thompson's live Facebook set tonight was wonderfiul with near on 13,000 watching. Enjoyed what I saw of Phil Cook's Randy Newman set but it was beset by technical problems. And how did I not know that Randy Newman wrote simon smith and his amazing dancing bear?

Mikey's picture Mikey replied on

Some of the postponed gigs have been rescheduled for later in the year, some in the Summer.  Worried that if these have to be postponed again, if will be a final straw for some of these venues and wonder how resilient they will or or if these will be the ones that end up going out of business.

ray_rad's picture ray_rad replied on

on an even more depressing front, many artists are getting sick

john prine is 'critical':

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/john-prine-covid-19-sympto...

larry campbell from dylan and levon helm's bands is pretty unwell:

https://jambands.com/news/2020/03/25/hes-sicker-than-hes-ever-been-in-hi...

and jackson brown has coronavirus but is apparently in reasonably good shape:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jackson-browne-tests-posit...

manu dibango has, of course, died in the last week

as has raggae original and local (to me) legend, delroy washington

https://www.voice-online.co.uk/entertainment/music/2020/03/27/british-re...

many more older artists will get it too, no doubt

ray_rad's picture ray_rad replied on

bugger

i hadn't seen that

looks like he's out of ICU and on a ward now, thank goodness

but still 'very poorly'

Pages