COVID Planning Guidance For UK Festivals Published

Anteros from London, England.
Fanatic/Andrew Whitton – Anteros from London, England.
Performing at AIF member festival Y Not in 2019.
The UK’s Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) led on the creation of a COVID-19 guide for festivals, laying out “a flexible, pragmatic and realistic approach” to promoting festivals in the current pandemic.
The document has been developed by AIF in conjunction with Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), the Events Industry Forum (EIF) and Attitude Is Everything.
The Covid guidance for festivals is available for download.
 – The Covid guidance for festivals is available for download.

The UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and Public Health England (PHE) also provided input.

It’s a live document that’s available here. It is going to be updated on a monthly basis, according to the announcement.
The document “outlines planning considerations with the purpose of supporting festival organisers as well as relevant authorities and agencies in taking a bespoke risk assessment approach, where events are able to follow government guidance and regulations.”
It covers eight key themes and Covid safety measures, including medical and welfare arrangements; crowd considerations; response plans; security; site adjustments; and specific mitigation measures.  
“As the guidance is updated regularly, members of the working group will run monthly webinars to update the festival sector and others. Agencies at a national level are being invited to provide input on an ongoing basis,” the announcement continues.
AIF CEO Paul Reed commented, “Risk mitigation is what festival promoters do for a living, so the intent of this guidance is to outline Covid-19 specific planning considerations that will allow for bespoke risk assessment approaches in liaison with relevant authorities and agencies. 
“I’d like to thank the AIF Ops Group for leading on this important piece of work and also DCMS, PHE officials and the wider festival industry for their invaluable contributions.”
General Secretary of the AFO, Steve Heap, added, “Next summer may seem far away but, in terms of festival planning, it is right around the corner. 
“UK festivals are a world leading industry and, with tools such as this in place, we are ready to re-emerge and stage Covid safe and successful festivals in 2021. On behalf of AFO members, my thanks to colleagues at AIF for their work in developing this much needed guidance.”