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Latitude Festival 2021: Organiser 'very certain' it will go ahead

BBC Wolf AliceBBC
Mercury Prize winners Wolf Alice are one of the headliners for this year's Latitude Festival

The organiser of the Latitude Festival said he was "very certain" it would go ahead this summer.

The four-day event is due to be held at Henham Park in Suffolk from 23 July - four days after the government expects to lift all limits on social contact.

Musical headliners include Bastille, Bombay Bicycle Club, Wolf Alice and The Chemical Brothers.

Melvin Benn said it was the festival industry's view "that we are all guns blazing" from 19 July onwards.

The final relaxation of lockdown restrictions was provisionally scheduled for 21 June but the delay was announced on Monday.

Mr Benn told Radio 4's Today programme: "I'm very certain that [Latitude] will be going ahead.

"We've been given a terminus date by the prime minister and I can see no reason why we shouldn't be planning to go ahead from the 19th onwards.

"We are now of the view that we need to be told not to go ahead as opposed to where we were, which was waiting to be told that we could go ahead."

Latitude Festival 2019
Latitude Festival's pink sheep have become a signature sight at the event
Bastille
Bastille will co-headline the Sunday of Latitude Festival

Other acts lined up for Latitude, which was cancelled last year, include comedians Bill Bailey, Katherine Ryan and Jo Brand.

Mr Benn said in March the event would run at full capacity - with 40,000 people on site - with negative Covid tests a requirement of entry.

Bombay Bicycle Club
Bombay Bicycle Club will be the other co-headliner on Sunday evening of Latitude Festival

The Download Festival is being held this weekend at Donington Park, Leicestershire, another event organised by Festival Republic managing director Mr Benn.

It is a three-day test event with 10,000 people instead of 111,000, and will help the government see how Covid-19 transmissions happen in crowds.

Mr Benn said the differences between it and festivals pre-Covid would be "minimal".

"Really it's all about pre-testing of people before they arrive at the event to make sure that everyone arriving at the event is Covid-free; after that you wouldn't know there was any difference from 2019," he said.

Another test event was held in Liverpool.

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