Boomtown Fair Postpones, Citing Insurance Issues

Clash

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Organisers are critical of government support...

*Boomtown Fair* will not go ahead this summer.

The much-loved event has grown to become* the UK's largest independent festival*, but couldn't go ahead last summer.

Aiming to take place at the Matterley Estate, close to Winchester this summer, *more than 66,000 tickets were sold* for what was billed as Chapter One: The Gathering.

In a fresh statement, however, Boomtown Fair organisers confirm that the event cannot go ahead due to insurance issues, and ongoing unknowns surrounding the festival season as a whole.

Boomtown explains: "After almost half a year of collective campaigning to the government, sadly COVID specific cancellation insurance for events still does not exist at this point in time. This means anyone putting on an event this year, will be doing so without the safety net of insurance to cover them should COVID prevent them from going ahead in any capacity. For an independent event as large and complex as Boomtown, this is a huge gamble of up to an eight figure sum and the financial risk is simply too high."

Continuing, the statement reads: "We have been doing everything within our power to try to find a solution to the conundrum of putting on a safe and well-run event to the sheer scale, complexity and intricate nature of Boomtown this summer. Unfortunately, without any clear indication of what size events will be able to take place, and the conditions in which we will be able to operate, we have come to the conclusion that time has simply run out for us to be able to proceed in a way that would live up to our high safety and production standards for the event we had planned."

The full statement can be found below.



We are absolutely devastated to announce that unfortunately, we will no longer be holding Boomtown Chapter One: The Gathering this year and it will now take place from 10 - 14th August 2022

Find more details and ticket FAQ’s here: https://t.co/bu5Lw71mLj pic.twitter.com/9rM5BFVSfw

— Boomtown Fair (@BoomtownFair) April 20, 2021


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