To play or not to play: The state of music festivals in 2021

On June 1, however, it was cancelled. “Our hearts are bleeding,” said festival boss, Thomas Jensen. The next edition of the major heavy metal event is now set to take place from August 4 to 6, 2022. With this, Wacken joins a long list of festivals that had already cancelled their events in the northern hemisphere spring for the second year in a row due to the COVID pandemic, including the Hurricane, Melt!, Splash, Rock am Ring and Summerjam festivals. But demonstrating that things are changing weekly, Wacken organisers announced mid-June that they would at least be holding a “mini” version of the festival. But as German politicians continue to play things by ear, planning an event in its usual form remains far too financially risky for most event organisers.

There is no real perspective for the industry to reopen — despite sinking COVID infection rates nationwide. Axel Ballreich, festival organiser, club operator and chairman of the LiveKomm event industry federation, understands this caution. “They never gave us any perspective; we never knew how things were going to look like in a month.” Ballreich admits that there are comparatively good financial support programs in Germany for some sectors, for instance, for clubs. But the discontinuation of some festivals cannot be prevented. That’s because many organisers of smaller festivals work on a volunteer basis.

“After all, they have thrown themselves into preparations twice, they have spent money, yet get no returns at all,” he said. In addition, attendance at these festivals after the pandemic is still unclear. “You can’t expect that within a year or two the industry will bounce back to where it was in 2019. It may well take until 2025,” Ballreich told DW. Other countries have attempted to take risks but with few positive results for the industry so far. In February, for example, French organisers received a clear go-ahead from Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot for the summer festival season, but because of COVID-related security requirements and restrictions, most organisers ended up cancelling them themselves, including popular festivals such as the Rock en Seine, Solidays and Hellfest.

French COVID regulations stipulate that people may not stand at the festivals and imposes a limit of 5,000 people per show. For a festival like Hellfest that features mainly metal music, seated concerts would be simply unthinkable. In England, given the speedy and successful vaccination campaign and sinking infection rates, people were confident about this summer. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced in the spring that measures would be largely loosened nationwide starting June 21. But ever since the highly contagious delta variant saw infection figures spike again, this plan has now been postponed to July 19 — with drastic consequences for festival and concert organisers. Various festivals are now trying to make their mark with creative ideas, offering hope and prospects given the current circumstances. However, the overall situation remains extremely precarious for an industry that has remained almost completely dormant for the second year in a row.