NI festival organisers frustrated by dates delay

Festival organisers have urged the NI Executive to provide reopening dates for the return of live music events.

A pilot concert in Liverpool last weekend saw 5,000 closely-packed music fans enjoy the event without masks or social distancing.

Open House festival director Kieran Gilmore said the uncertainty around reopening was "deeply frustrating".

"The music and events industry is being completely ignored by our executive," he added.

"It is frustrating for us to have so little guidance in Northern Ireland.

"The hospitality industry has been given dates at least - we have been given nothing.

"I think the uncertainty demonstrates the lack of understanding and respect of the role the Northern Ireland music festival events industry plays in the economy."

The mini-festival in Liverpool's Sefton Park was one of the government's official trial events to research how large gatherings can safely take place again.

The events form part of the government's Events Research Programme (ERP), which will explore the risk of transmission and the effectiveness of measures such as ventilation and testing.

All ticket holders had to take a supervised coronavirus lateral flow test at one of four testing centres in the city the day before, and were only allowed in if the test was negative.

Mr Gilmore, like other festival organisers in Northern Ireland, is hoping the data from these trial events will mean live music gigs can take place soon.

"The mini-festival in Liverpool was a brilliant idea and bold, I am really glad it happened - I look forward to seeing the data," he added.

"How that will be interpreted is the next thing.

"In England, the government is being positive and proactive with the live music industry, but it is not happening in Northern Ireland.

"We need some dates for reopening and guidance on capacities - we don't know whether we can run an event for 100 people, 500 people or 5,000 people."

Joe Dougan, a member of Belsonic festival's organising team, said they were currently in limbo and hoping for some clarity in terms of indicative dates.

"Some of the concerts have been rescheduled until 2022, such as Lionel Richie and Lewis Capaldi, however many more are planned for later this summer."

He said they were awaiting the findings of the ERP.

"With the events in Liverpool at the weekend, the government should have all the data needed to inform future policy and to flag up any potential issues," he added.

"My concern is that if we hold back to stage our own pilot events in Northern Ireland, it could draw out the return to live music events.

"I don't know what the necessity of that would be if the UK government has detailed data available from events in a UK city of a similar size to Belfast."

Mr Dougan said the past year had been "frustrating" but they wanted to present their events in a "safe environment, when prudent to do so".

He said the pandemic had cost Belsonic "millions of pounds in turnover over the past year".

"We thankfully got assistance from the Arts Council NI's stabilisation grant, there were the usual furlough schemes in place for employees etc but it doesn't come close to covering what has been lost during the pandemic," he said.

"We just want to get back to business."

John Cartwright, part of the organising team for the Stendhal Festival near Limavady, said his fingers were crossed.

"Live music is a massive driver for us in Northern Ireland," he added.

"Northern Ireland artists have not been able to earn their corn for a year, if this data supports getting back on stage with conditions, it is vital that it is implemented and ourselves and other events can run again."

Mr Cartwright said the Stendhal Festival was planning for summer gigs by working on various scenarios, but that it was "essentially doing it blindfolded at present without specific guidelines".

"Last year we had to refund a lot of our tickets as the event did not go ahead, but a lot of our patrons chose to roll over their tickets to this year, which helped keep us in business," he said.

"If everyone had looked for refunds, we would have been in a lot worse position.

"You only have one chance a year to make your money and if you don't it is very tough.

"If we weren't allowed to run it this year, it would be a massive concern."

A Northern Ireland Executive Office spokesperson said: "Consideration is being given to how we can move towards larger gatherings on our pathway out of restrictions.

"This includes close observation of the outcomes of pilot events in other jurisdictions and consideration of the potential for a pilot event here."

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has called for "urgent intervention" to save the season and wants the government to back cancellation insurance.

This would allow organisers to go ahead with their plans without suffering financial losses if they were forced to cancel their events due to a new spike in Covid-19 cases.

The three Northern Ireland festival organisers who were interviewed said they were supportive of an insurance scheme.

A UK government spokesperson said it had provided "almost £2bn to support the arts and culture sectors through the pandemic including £33m allocated to Northern Ireland from our unprecedented Culture Recovery Fund".

"As part of our roadmap for reopening all sectors in a phased and safe way, we also held an outdoor test event for live music at Sefton Park in Liverpool last week to explore how we can reopen festivals," they added.

"We are aware of the wider concerns about securing indemnity for live events and are exploring what further support we may provide."