Boomtown festival near Winchester will not go ahead this year, organisers say

The festival, started in 2009, was due to return to Matterley Estate, near Winchester from August 11 to 15 this year.

It was due to take place less than a fortnight before Southsea’s Victorious Festival 2021, which announced its line up last month.

Now organisers say they have had to pull the event over uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and the lack of a government-backed Covid-specific insurance scheme.

It marks the second year that the festival has been called off.

More than 77 per cent of Boomtown 2020 ticket holders had rolled their tickets over to this year’s event.

The festival has confirmed that all tickets for the 2021 festival will remain valid for the 2022 event.

They will automatically roll over.

Concerned about future Covid-19 restrictions and without an insurance scheme to cover events hit by the pandemic, the festival’s organisers say the financial risk this year is ‘simply too high’.

In a statement, the organisers said: ‘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.’

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It comes as business and venues across Portsmouth have called for more information about possible government restrictions on events with large audiences.

Proposals include Covid passports restricting who may attend.

The Boomtown Festival organisers added: ‘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.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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