Deer Shed festival still to be socially distanced despite rules change

A family festival is planning to run a socially distanced event, despite it taking place after the planned lifting of all Covid restrictions.

The Deer Shed said its comedy and music event in July would operate under the current guidelines, which means no more than 4,000 people can attend.

Under the government's roadmap all Coronavirus restrictions are due to be lifted on 21 June.

Organiser Oliver Jones said he expected many festivals would be cancelled.

Mr Jones, who runs the festival on 90 acres of parkland near Topcliffe, Thirsk, in North Yorkshire, said despite the government's timetable for coming out of lockdown "large events are not going to be back to normal."

"We want to make it as bullet-proof in this current environment as we can because there will be more festival cancellations and anyone who thinks the festival summer season is on is fairly deluded," he said.

The festival is usually attended by 10,000 people, but last year it ran a scaled down version called Base Camp. This year's headliners include John Shuttleworth, Mark Watson and Jane Weaver.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, those attending will need to wear masks in covered areas and the event will feature table bar service. A toilet alongside each of the 850 camping pitches is among measures festival organisers will introduce to meet public health tests being led by North Yorkshire County Council.

A spokesman for the council said all such events would be reviewed by the local Safety Advisory Group which would consider if the event organiser was ensuring all mitigations were in place to protect the public.

Checks for the festival will include that it can demonstrate safe and effective management of crowd density, how queues can be managed effectively, its ability to ensure the use of face coverings and enhanced cleaning, hand washing and hygiene procedures.

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