Festivals this summer? Sorry, I’m not going anywhere crowded just yet

The Reading and Leeds festival website crashed within minutes of organisers announcing that the party would go ahead this summer. Liam Gallagher, who is due to perform, added to the excitement, tweeting: “READING n LEEDS c’mon you f***ers.”

But the temporary glitch as people snapped up tickets isn’t just down to the line-up, which also includes Stormzy, Post Malone, Queens of the Stone Age, Lewis Capaldi, and Charli XCX.

It has surely got far more to do with the fact that we have been starved of fun for so long. The double festival over the August bank holiday weekend at Little John’s Farm in Reading and Bramham Park in Leeds is the first major summer event to announce its return since Boris Johnson unveiled England’s roadmap out of lockdown.

A message on the festival’s official Twitter page said: “Following the government’s recent announcement, we can’t wait to get back to the fields this summer. Let’s go.” The excitement is palpable; we are like racehorses waiting for the starting gates to fly open.

But while Johnson said he was “very optimistic” that he will be able to fully remove all of the Covid restrictions on 21 June, he also mentioned, “nothing can be guaranteed”.

I don’t want to be a killjoy. The UK festival circuit has been hit hard by the Covid pandemic. But as much as I love the idea of “back to normal” for the arts so soon, it’s making me nervous. The mere thought of being surrounded by loads of sweaty bodies is enough to send shivers down my spine.

Maybe I’m just used to the “new normal” of not getting within two metres of anybody except my two children. But do we really know how coronavirus is going to spread in crowds? The nature of festival camping hardly conjures up good hygiene rituals. Could unvaccinated festival goers be major spreaders? Will we be in a safe place by the summer to throw social distancing out the window and dance the night away? It’s still an unknown.

Maybe Germany’s biggest newspaper, Bild, is right when it praises the UK’s vaccine success with the headline “Dear Brits, we envy you”, just as Angela Merkel warns of a looming third wave, with only 4 per cent of the population vaccinated.

But with all the unpredictability and safety concerns, I have to admit, I’m bailing out. Sorry, I’m not going anywhere crowded just yet.

Yours,

Charlotte Cripps

Culture writer