Festival Republic has announced that a 10,000 capacity camping festival pilot event is being planned for the U.K. in June 2021. The gathering will be used to determine the effectiveness of various COVID-19 protocols.
Festival Republic Managing Director Melvin Benn announced the proposed event on May 13th. The gathering will see them partner with the U.K. government’s Events Research Programme (ERP), according to Benn. The promoter was also responsible for the 5,000 capacity greenfield festival test at Liverpool’s Sefton Park on May 1st.
There have been additional test projects across the U.K. 4,500 guests attended the BRIT Awards last week and 21,000 attendees were allowed to be at Wembley Stadium for the FA Cup finals last weekend. Circus also organized a warehouse club event of 6,000 in Liverpool called The First Dance on April 29th-30th.
“It’s about testing the protocols around using COVID-19 certification on the NHS app, and it’s also around testing the protocols of what the SAGE scientists here in the U.K. want, which is at-home testing for all attendees that don’t have the vaccination and are not immune,” Benn told IQ Magazine. “It’s not like Reading or Lollapalooza Chicago or anything like that, but it’s a decent number and certainly, a number that they can adequately take data from and multiply.”
He continued: “The area that they are significantly most concerned about is not so much the venues, they know (the staff) will look after everybody at the venues, it is public transport. It is large amounts of people squashed with no circulation on buses coming into Glasgow city center, or coming on tubes into Wembley Stadium. I believe that’s the area they are more concerned about, compared to the actual venues themselves, particularly outdoor venues.”
Festival Republic is a U.K. music event promoter. The brand was founded under the name Mean Fiddler Group by John Vincent Power in 1982 as a venue management and music promotion group. It’s responsible for major happenings like Reading Festival, Leeds Festival and EDC UK, amongst others. They also produce BBC Proms In The Park and BBC Radio 2 Live In Hyde Park.
At the time of writing, it has not been confirmed that the pilot event will take place. Benn intends for it to happen in mid-June.
