The 2021 Festival Season in Review.

2021 has been an eventful year for the festival sector with plenty of highs and lows to reflect on. It has been another tough year financially for the industry and anyone who works in it but the festival sector has survived intact. The future looks bright with most festivals looking forward to a good year in 2022.  

Despite the turmoil caused by the ongoing pandemic over 40 new festivals were announced in the UK alone. This is an indicator of the optimism seen by organisers who have considered launching a new festival as an opportunity to establish themselves. This is probably because of the pent-up demand from festival-goers after the cancellation of almost all festivals in 2020. 

Coronavirus Pandemic. 
The pandemic has continued to dominate the festival sector over the last 12 months with events struggling to come back. Many governments' kept restrictions in place at the beginning of the year making it difficult for organisers to plan their summer events. After a number of pilot festivals at the beginning of the summer the go ahead was given for festivals to go ahead but under strict controls and new protocols for preventing the spread of COVID-19. This didn’t prevent the 5,000 cases reported after the Boardmasters festival in August. Festivals could only have gone ahead once the UK Government finally approved the underwriting of COVID related cancellation insurance. This was unfortunately too late for a number of well-known festivals that cancelled their events in 2021 for the second year running.

Tragedy. 
The industry has seen tragedy this year when sadly 10 festival-goers lost their lives and 300 were injured at the Astroworld festival in Houston, Texas in November. Whilst the cause of that is still being investigated it does highlight the importance of adequate health and safety measures needed at every event. Another low point was reached earlier this month when American rapper Drakeo the Ruler was fatally stabbed back stage before performing at the Once Upon a Time in LA festival. 

Controversy. 
The court cases revolving around the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival finally saw ticket holders get awarded compensation with organiser Billy McFarland being described as a serial fraudster, he is currently serving a six-year prison sentence. Just as Fyre Festival was in the media in April a new debacle arose in October from Ozy Media who had created Ozy Fest in Miami which some called the next Fyre Festival. The controversy was triggered by a news article that described how Ozy's operating chief, Samir Rao, impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with Goldman Sachs, which was considering investing $40 million in Ozy.

2022.
Concerns about the never ending COVID-19 variants and surges in cases will probably continue although it has been suggested by the medical experts that as more of the population gets fully vaccinated the severity is greatly reduced. Could 2022 be the turning point where we just start living with COVID-19 and start getting back to normal? There is a sense of optimism about the festival season for 2022 with the majority of festivals going ahead and it has been encouraging to see a rush of line-up announcements throughout December. Demand for tickets remains high and the enthusiasm and expectations from festival-goers remains high.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Rahul Pandit from Pexels

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