Fairport Convention are still “cautiously optimistic” about holding their festival at Cropredy this year.
The festival, with normally takes place in August was cancelled along with many hundred others last year because of the Corvid-19 pandemic.
In an open letter to their fans yesterday, they said
“Now to the question you’ve all been asking: is Cropredy going ahead this year? Inevitably, there are many factors involved before any concrete decision can be made.
Firstly, despite sustained lobbying, our industry has thus far been unable to obtain government backed cancelation insurance covering Covid. Without this insurance in place, we and other festivals would be taking a huge risk were we to go ahead. Organisations such as the Association of Independent Festivals and the Association of Festival Organisers will continue to lobby on our behalf.
Secondly, we are waiting for clarification the Prime Minister has promised regarding Step 4, the removal of all restrictions, on or after 21 June once he has the data from the Event Research Programme taking place in May. At the time of writing the numbers of cases and deaths are coming down, there are less patients in hospital and the massive vaccination programme is ahead of its projected schedule. However, one thing we’ve all learnt from the past 14 months is that we can’t take anything for granted. Nonetheless we remain cautiously optimistic (surely this year’s most over-used phrase). There is an air of hope in the country at the moment so let’s keep our fingers crossed that the news in June will be just the tonic we all need.
If we are given the green light, we will be ready to go. As always, our primary concern will be the safety and wellbeing of our crews, the performers, village residents and – of course – you, the Cropredy crowd.”
