Those planning to go to this year’s Leeds Festival will be interested to know what industry experts are forecasting for the future of live music events in 2021.
Representatives from the music industry and festival organisers spoke to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport about the severe impact the coronavirus pandemic has had.
The UK live music industry was worth £1.3bn in 2019 - but it has been hit hard by the pandemic, with more than 90 per cent of the gigs planned for 2020 cancelled. Leeds Fest was just one of the big events which couldn't go ahead.
Steve Heap, general secretary of the Association of Festival Organisers, said that while major festivals would have to make a decision whether to go ahead this month, smaller events had until April.
He said: "If we get as far as Easter and we still don't know that crowds can gather at festivals, however large or small, then we are in a catastrophic situation with this year's season.”
In terms of Leeds Festival and other big Yorkshire events the current stance is that they are going ahead as planned. Of course, we’ll bring you any updates when we get them.
A spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: "We know these are challenging times for the live events sector and are working flat out to support it.
"Our £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund has already seen more than £1bn offered to arts, heritage and performance organisations to support them through the impact of the pandemic, protecting tens of thousands of creative jobs across the UK, including festivals such as Deer Shed Festival, End of the Road and Nozstock."
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll keep you posted about the plans for Leeds Festival 2021. You can also join our Leeds Festival Facebook group.
