Glastonbury will take place virtually, Positivus and Summer Sound still keep hoping

With the start of spring, the decisive moment is approaching faster and faster, when the organizers of summer open-air festivals around the world will have to decide on what to do with the events that last year were postponed to 2021. Including Positivus Festival and Summer Sound, the Latvian festival flagships.

One of the largest open-air festivals in Europe - Glastonbury in Great Britain - has decided on a bold solution. It gathers the world's top musicians and more than 200,000 visitors every year. The festival was held for the first time in 1970, and last year it planned to celebrate an ambitious 50th anniversary, but - nothing. The organizers of the Glastonbury Festival quickly realized that this "nothing" would unfortunately continue in 2021, and announced the decision to organize an exclusive live broadcast from Somerset Worthy Farm for the first time in the festival's history, allowing music fans anywhere in the world to virtually unite and experience the festival and its idyllic surroundings. "This is a unique opportunity to be virtually at a festival, for which it is usually almost impossible to buy tickets, because they are sold out at the speed of light," said the organizers. And they are right, now everyone can get relatively cheap tickets.

The Glastonbury live broadcast will start on May 22 at 9 pm (Latvian time). The event will be filmed throughout the Worthy Farm, with some highlights, including the Pyramid Stage and the Stone Circle. The live festival will feature several well-known artists, including Coldplay, Damon Albarn (Blur), Haim, Idles, Jorja Smith, Kano, Michael Kiwanuka, Wolf Alice, and DJ Honey Dijon. In addition, several performances by currently unrevealed artists are also planned. The breaks of the five-hour musical tour will be filled with narratives prepared and presented to the audience by special guests, guiding the event visitors on a journey through the sacred valley in Somerset. The filming of the live broadcast will be directed by Paul Dugdale, a Grammy Award nominee. Ticket price - 23 euros, together with the official festival poster - 50 euros.

The largest open-air festivals in Latvia - Positivus and Summer Sound - are still silent: the dates of the first are still set on July 16-17, and the second - a week later, on July 23-24. The last information posted on the Positivus Festival website is dated May 19, 2020, but in the case of the festival in Liepāja, the automatic counter that counts the days, hours, minutes and seconds left until the Summer Sound 2021 is the only sign of life. Although music fans mostly consider the money spent on tickets as an interest-free deposit, they would still like some clarity.

Ģirts Majors, the organizer of the Positivus Festival, was very positive about the decision of Glastonbury's colleagues, and reminded that the situation in the British Isles is quite interesting this year: the festivals that were planned for the first half of the summer will not take place this year either, but there are hopes that by the end of June all restrictions will be lifted, so the organizers of the festivals planned for the second half of the summer will try to organize them as usual. "In large countries, it is possible to create various alternative video solutions [for festivals], but it has nothing to do with business or economic activity - there is someone who pays for it," Ģirts pointed out. "On the other hand, we have no choice but to observe the general situation with Covid-19, as well as whether foreign artists will resume travel. This is a very important thing because those festivals that will try to take place this summer will be mostly based on local artists. However, if it is not a problem to gather domestic groups as headliners in Europe, then there are simply no such stadium-level groups in Latvia. It is clear that the domestic audience is still waiting for foreign artists, but in order for foreign groups to come to us, the question is not only about the situation here, but also in the world - whether the movement will be allowed. So far, it's all unclear. The program was largely ready for us already in the autumn, but we have not announced anything, because the current situation would make any statement a bit frivolous."

As it technically takes about a month to organize the Positivus Festival, hopes for it have not been abandoned in 2021, however… “If foreign bands do not resume concerts, then Positivus Festival will not take place, because Positivus cannot do only with domestic bands. Positivus will take place when foreign artists will be able to come, so the question is whether it will be possible this year or whether we will have to wait another year. This issue is still open. Until we announce that [the festival] will not take place, we still have microscopic hope,” says Ģirts Majors.

In turn, his colleague in Liepāja, the organizer of Summer Sound Uldis Pabērzis was even more skeptical in his forecasts: “I am not very optimistic about this year. The decision to postpone the festival for another year has not yet been made, as there is no official justification for doing so, but given the pace at which we are doing all the vaccination-related things, it is unlikely that we will achieve results in this area to hold large-scale events by the end of the summer." Summer Sound would not have a big problem in terms of artists. "The whole line-up has been sold this year. Theoretically, all foreign artists could arrive and also from the locals, as far as I have spoken, everyone would be ready to go. Another question is what we will be allowed to do, so I am still holding back on making any announcements, although I am quite skeptical [about the possibilities to organize a festival],” admitted Uldis. According to him, this summer too there are higher hopes for smaller events with an audience of 500-1000 visitors, but festivals for about 10,000 people are unrealistic. "Meanwhile online events have already been tried by local artists, they will not surprise anyone, and it is not possible to gain critical mass with them to make a profit. And international artists can organize such events for the whole world even without us as intermediaries since the location does not matter at all.”

Uldis Pabērzis has marked in red a time when the organization or non-organization of Summer Sound should be clearly figured out - it is the end of May. "If there are positive trends - vaccines are coming, the centers are working, everything is happening, and June is ready for such a miracle, you can still organize a festival in a month. But if at that time 20-25% of the population is vaccinated and there is still uncertainty about vaccines, then in July nothing will be at the state to be able to hold big events."

*****

Be the first to read interesting news from Latvia and the world by joining our Telegram and Signal channels.