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Festivalgoers watch Declan McKenna perform at Latitude Festival at Henham Park, Britain, which was part of a government trial in July. /Peter Cziborra/Reuters
The British government has announced a new $1 billion insurance scheme to protect live events and festivals from cancellation.
The industry is worth almost $100 billion to the UK's economy and has been one of the hardest-hit sectors during the pandemic.
However Michael Kill, CEO of the Night Time Industries Association, says the insurance scheme has come too late to save some music events.
"Without a date there have been some casualties, many of my counterparts have been battling this issue for a year," Kill says.
"I think the positive thing is it's delivering real confidence to the sector in terms of workforce, because many of them stepped out of the industry due to uncertainty about whether it would return."
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This year a number of British music festivals have returned, but festival-goers must produce a negative COVID-19 test.
The UK's most famous music festival, Glastonbury, was the first major event to cancel this year – for the second year in a row. It was replaced with a live streamed concert which had some technical problems. It's also decided not to hold a one-day concert next month.
However, the four-day Latitude festival in Suffolk was able to go ahead, founder Melvin Benn saying "I managed to persuade the government to allow us into an events research program." Everyone at the festival had either a negative COVID-19 test result or proof of full vaccination.
Singer-songwriter Rory Graham, better known as Rag'n'Bone Man, says after more than a year of canceled concerts he feels confident tours will be back on by the end of the year.
"I think I feel a little bit better about them now than I did a couple of months ago, because I felt like they weren't going to happen," he said. "But now I feel better that they are going to go ahead."
With more than 700,000 people working in the UK's live events industry, Michael Kill says he welcomes the government move for removing some of the uncertainty that the sector has suffered for the past 18 months.
