3rd December 2020
I know it’s too early to get excited but you have to admit after 8 months of worrying whether our festivals will ever see the light of day again the possible prospect of the early season festivals being able to run perhaps in a limited covid safe way and the mid season and later ones getting back to near normal does begin to look promising. So whilst you ponder that bold ,and perhaps cauciou...
27th November 2020
Today, 11 November, DCMS have launched an inquiry through its select committee. They are looking into “the future of UK Music Festivals”. They would like written evidence by 9 December! AFO members are welcome to send evidence direct to DCMS and copy in the AFO office. OR send just to AFO and we will collate all responses into one report. We have been lobbying a...
25th November 2020
Music By Numbers is the flagship annual economic study by UK Music and its members that shows the UK music industry continued to grow in 2019 across every sector before the Covid-enforced shutdown hit in early 2020. The report measures the health of the music business by collating data about its contribution in goods and services to the economy. That economic contribution is known as Gross Valu...
23rd November 2020
The Government has issued its Winter Plan, which states that outdoor events such as concerts and sports will be able to accommodate audiences of up to 4,000 in Tier 1 and Tier 2 areas when the UK emerges from national lockdown on 2 December. It said in Tiers 1 and 2, live events can now resume inside and outside with capacity limits and social distancing in place. In Tier 1 the capacity limit w...
23rd November 2020
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Events (APPG) has now been re-established as an official APPG in Parliament following the appointment of a new chair and vice chair. The Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP, Member of Parliament for Chipping Barnet, will be the new Chair of the APPG. Villiers takes over from James Heappey MP, who was Chair for four years, until his appointment as Minister for the Ar...
23rd November 2020
Government officials have always tried hard to be clear. Ministers will often be heard saying "let me be very clear". So if you fancy a sing here is the clear guidance. o Singing takes place only in larger well-ventilated spaces, or outdoors. o Performance or rehearsal is for limited periods of time at a reduced level of loudness, using microphones for amplification if available. o ...
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20th November 2020
Field work for the latest consumer sentiment tracker was conducted last week 9-13 November, in this we can see the negative force of England’s lockdown, but also the positive news around the prospect of effective vaccines being available in the near future. Some key points include: People’s moods have received a lift – there is a very significant decline in the proportio...
16th November 2020
We are presenting a series of webinars and safety support for AFO Members to manage COVID 19 safe festivals, with event safety specialists, Symphotech, to run December 12th, January 9th and at our member's conference on February 20th. Specifically, the legislative area will be England. Producing our festivals will be complicated in 2021. These free to attend Recover & Reopen webinars ai...
9th November 2020
There are grants and support packages coming out of our ears these days. Along with several other organisations, AFO has been lobbying HM Gov. for funds in all quarters, some we have been successful others not so. This one MAY be of use to some of our AFO members. Read more here...
5th November 2020
FUNDS ARE NOW AT YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL OFFICE Guidance has just gone out on accessing the £1.1bn of funding to Local Authorities to support businesses during lockdown. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities?fbclid=IwAR0El71Y9l_rGzqP5ow0Gl3yCpf...
27th October 2020
The "Working Safely During Coronavirus Covid 19" guidance for people who work in performing arts, including arts organisations, venue operators and participants has been updated https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/performing-arts?fbclid=IwAR19e7rj9XuE--LrbVXAxX2RVpjWAshVTLdRoAi5xiY45is2q5NWsAMSusY#arts-3-2 ...
17th October 2020
Background Following the last minute cancellation of the Southampton Boat Show in September – a smaller version of the normal event – by Southampton City Council, the Forum sought advice from a leading barrister who specialises in licence issues, Phillip Kolvin QC. The following is a brief outline of his advice in relation to the use of Regulation 5(1) of The Health Protection (C...
13th October 2020
Updating guidance launched today (13th October 2020) includes contributions from across the festival industry working in collaboration with DCMS and Public Health England. Newly published festival guidance around Covid-19 will assist festival organisers, safety advisory group members, local directors of public health and other industry parties in assessing risk levels and planning fes...
9th October 2020
HELP NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!! Today will go down in history as one of the most disappointing days of the year. Cancelling the 2020 festival season was bad enough, most of our festival industry falling through the cracks in all the chancellor’s packages over the last six months has been a big pill to swallow. He told us we are not a viable industry ...
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9th October 2020
If any readers out there have venues, performance spaces, work in or create in the Liverpool area you might be interested to know that Liverpool City Region have just come up with a £40M fund especially for those people and venues who failed to achieve anything from their Arts Council applications in the Cultural Recovery Fund (due out 12/10/2020). See here for further details And you ...
29th September 2020
WeMakeEvents is calling on the industry to join together as a worldwide force on the 30th September for a Global Day Of Action As unemployment soars, 25 countries join together to represent over 30 million workers in the worldwide events industry The #WeMakeEvents campaign has been ramping up activity in order to highlight how the global live events industry urgently needs to get back to wor...
28th September 2020
HMRC has produced new guidance in relation to the Chancellors announcement yesterday that these businesses that deferred VAT payments from 20 March to 30 June 2020 will not now have to pay the full amount by the end of March 2021. Under the arrangements announced yesterday, businesses will have the option to make smaller interest-free payments up to the end of March 2022. To take advantage of this...
25th September 2020
Beardy Folk Festival (Sept 17th – 20th 2020) Under Covid restrictions – A brief report Introduction Beardy Folk Festival is situated near Cleobury Mortimer near Kidderminster. The event was held in Hopton Court and the usual capacity of the festival is 5000. However, for this year’s event tickets were limited to 750. This was the only folk festival to att...
14th September 2020
For our members in Scotland and Wales THE RULE OF 6 has some variations. Wales and Scotland have now introduced their own rules for Six people gathering which differ from England, just to complicate things for everyone! Wales In Wales, the “rule of Six” will only apply to people meeting indoors and all six people must all belong to the same “extended household group&r...
11th September 2020
AFO was part of the UKMUSIC campaign to get a reduction in VAT on Tickets sales and the subsequent campaign to confirm Festivals were seen as attractions and so be included. The following information may answer some of the queries we have been receiving. Readers may also be interested to know that there is now a new campaign to have this VAT reduction period extended into , at best the next ...
