Update (22nd March 2020):
Okay, as much as I wanted to be positive, it no longer seems likely that Download Festival will be held in 2020. According to their website it IS still on, but it’s really a matter of time before that gets changed.
I am keeping the rest of this blog post the same though, to show just how much things have changed in a week!
Okay, officially ignore everything I say in this post!
On Thursday 26th March, Download festival was officially cancelled. The Coronavirus doesn’t look to be beaten any time soon, and large gatherings just aren’t allowed currently. So Download festival will skip 2020, being back in 2021.
Again, I will keep this post up the way it was originally written, again just to show how quickly the situation with the Coronavirus has changed!
The Original Blog
The Coronavirus is a pretty hot topic currently and its causing worldwide disruption. Entire countries have shut down, it’s now officially been deemed a Pandemic by the World Health Organisation, and Iran has dug mass graves for Coronavirus victims that are so large, they’re visible from space.
Closer to home (If your home is in the UK), many concerts have been delayed or outright cancelled.
The Coronavirus is getting people worried about what impact this will have on the festival season, and specific events, like Download Festival.
Maybe this isn’t the most pressing issue, but festivals are important to people, and it’s understandable that they will be anxious about what’s going to happen.
There is a lot of panic and misinformation going around at the moment because of this unprecedented outbreak, and no-one really knows what to think.
Download Festival
With Download Festival taking place quite early in the year, it’s one of the first large UK festivals to take place. It makes sense that all eyes are on Download right now, as they could set precedent for other festivals later on in the year.
If Download Festival does decide to postpone or (God forbid) cancel the festival this year, it’s more likely that other festivals like Leeds and Reading or Bloodstock will follow suit.
So in this blog post I will look into the details of this, what information we do actually have, and then make a prediction about the future.
Obviously, that will be my own opinion and may end up being totally wrong, but it will be based on as much information as I can get, so I’m at least not just pulling it from thin air.
Coronavirus and the UK
The UK has now officially moved into the Delay phase of their Coronavirus response plan. We have left the first phrase, Containment, which aimed to detect and stop the disease as much as possible.
The good news is that festival season is still a few months away, so it’s not as significant a thing to worry about right now. There is time for the virus to be dealt with by governments and medical staff.
While there is no way of knowing when the Coronavirus will stop causing so many issues (and as a disease it is likely to be around forever) but that doesn’t mean the travel bans and changes to pubic life will continue as they are.
On that note: while Boris Johnston recently stated that the UK would not be banning public gatherings, on the 14th March, newspapers announced that the Government was going to make a u-turn on that decision.
There is no solid information on the details or timeline of this though, so it’s difficult to speculate. It does seem that some sort of ban on public gatherings will take place, but that wasn’t the Governments original plan, so details aren’t clear yet.
Scotland has decided to ban gathering of over 500 people from Monday 16th March. This follows on from several other cities and countries banning public gatherings over a certain size. If this continues and England brings in this kind of law too, then that pretty much stops all music festivals from taking place.
So what has Download Festival said on the subject so far?
Download Festival – Reaction
Let’s start with the sad news that Download Festival Australia has been cancelled. Mostly this seems to be due to My Chemical Romance postponing their tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Download Festival Japan had the same problem, but so far it has only been postponed and is set to still happen this year, though dates have not been announced.
As frustrating as this is for people who have already bought tickets, it’s really not anyone’s fault. My Chemical Romance were the highlight bands at both Download Festival Australia and Japan. The festivals can’t really go ahead without their star band, can they?
For Download Festival UK fans, we did receive an email (assuming you’re on their mailing list, obviously) with what little information they could give. This is now part of the ‘Info’ section of the website.
The key take-away from the email is: Currently, Download Festival is NOT cancelled!
They state that they are following guidance from the World Health Organisation, the UK Government and the NHS and will update the page if any significant changes occur.
Now, the page doesn’t include any assurance that the festival won’t get cancelled in the future, or that it will only be postponed.
But really, these are promises that the organisers just cannot make. The Coronavirus outbreak is totally unprecedented, and no-one could predict the effects it’s causing on every aspect of modern life.
Predictions
So the overall question is: will the Coronavirus cause Download Festival to be Postponed or Cancelled? Here are my opinions (not to be taken as fact in any way, shape or form).
Best-Case Scenario
Everything is fine and the world deals with the virus before this point. Download Festival goes ahead as planned and everyone has a lovely time.
Currently this seems the most likely, though I admit my optimism is waning (particularly with suggestions that the peak of cases in the UK will hit in early June…).
The banning of public gatherings is bad, but again we still have several months before Download Festival is set to take place, so this ban may have already been lifted by then. Everyone just needs to cross all the fingers, and do what they can to stop the spread of the disease.
While other countries have full-scale lockdowns, that doesn’t mean it will happen in the UK too.
Middle-Case Scenario
Download is postponed for a few months, but still takes place in 2020 later in the year, maybe alongside Bloodstock in August. This seems least likely, as postponing an entire festival is a huge logistical nightmare.
Not that it‘s stopped Coachella in America.
Ensuring all the acts can still attend, that Donington isn’t being used for a big race weekend, and that if any festival goers can’t attend, they can still receive refunds. These are all huge problems that are not easy to resolve.
Worst-case scenario
Download festival is cancelled, and we just skip to 2021. This is less likely, but still a very valid scenario. Depending how bad the spread and mortality rate of the virus gets, it may just not be financially worth it to hold download festival this year.
It’s worth pointing out that holding a festival also takes hundreds of peoples input and work. People who are also entirely capable of contacting the virus. If they get sick, the work for everyone else goes up.
This is the second most-likely outcome I think, and can be the most likely, depending on who you ask.
But as someone who loves Download Festival and is perhaps naively optimistic, I still think Download will happen this year.
Wrap Up
For now, there isn’t much anyone can do but wait and see what Download Festival UK announces. In the meantime however, you can work to help give it the best chance of still going ahead by following the guidance about Coronavirus.
- Wash your hands thoroughly and frequently
- Maintain social distancing
- If you believe you are infected, call 111 (Do NOT go to the hospital)
- Self isolate for 14 days
If the festival is cancelled, you can still relive my experiences at Download Festival (that’s a good alternative, right?) you can check out my festival experience pages here:
