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The UK has announced that a Download festival pilot will take place in June 2021 as part of the experimental series of events which have taken place over recent months to track the spread and control of Covid-19 in crowded environments.
Download had previously been cancelled earlier this year, however it seems a welcome compromise has been reached with the UK government who are using the festival weekend on 18 – 20 June as the latest in a run of test events to measure the safety of gathering, particularly in entertainment settings.
Rather than welcoming the usual 111,000 attendees, the test event will instead be opened to 10,000 lucky ticket holders for the 2022 festival who are able to win one of the places for this pilot concert. If successful, the event will be open to those who will have shown a negative lateral flow test result as well as taking a PCR test, along with all staff on site in order to be allowed in.
All who attend the festival will be required to camp for the entire three days of the event, and there are no social distancing measures required, nor masks. The attendees who will all be aged 16 and above will consent to being part of the study and what that entails in terms of following up post-festival.
As with previous studies that have gone ahead with success, the study will be measured and observed by Public Health England in order to push ahead on the events scheduled for the rest of the planned 2021 season in the UK.
Ticket winners can look forward to a range of artists old and new in a fantastic and varied lineup that has been announced so far.
Death Blooms, Malevolence, Hot Milk, Holding Absence, Neck Deep, Sleep Token, Boston Manor while Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes will headline.
While She Sleeps, Creeper, Stone Broken, Twin Atlantic, Yonaka, Those Damn Crows, “A”, Vukovi, Tigercub, Wargasm, The Hara, Bleed From Within, As Everything Unfolds, Conjurer, Lotus Eater, and the Saturday night headliner is Enter Shikari.
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Skindred, The Wildhearts, Trash Boat, Massive Wagons, Elvana, Jamie Lenman, Lonely The Brave, Higher Power, Loathe, Chubby and The Gang, Employed To Serve, Cassyette, Saint Agnes, Static Dress and the headliners Bullet For My Valentine.
A run of trial events in Europe and the UK has so far appeared to be successful as reported by TheatreArtLife previously, and subsequent pilots have produced good results:
The recent World Snooker Championships, the Brit Awards, Liverpool trial concerts, and London football events have all successfully gone ahead with very low infection/transmission rates following the thousands of audience members who attended these experimental trials.
According to the BBC, just 15 cases of Covid were reported from the 58,000 people who attended these events, providing a great deal of hope in the form of promising statistics and results.
June 2021 will be a crucial time for the UK as plans for coming out of lockdown will be confirmed in a government announcement scheduled for 14 June. If the science continues to prove safety and guide the public, the current plans to lift the remaining restrictions in the UK are scheduled to go live from 21 June, with plenty of time left for the summer of events to resume. While it’s unconfirmed as yet what may be announced, the tests are certainly looking hopeful.
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Michelle is a musician and composer from the UK. She has performed across the UK and Europe and is passionate about arts education and opportunities for women and girls.
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