Latitude Festival will welcome some 35,000 music fans next month after confirming it would go ahead at full capacity as part of the UK Government’s Event Research Programme (ERP).
The Suffolk event, scheduled to take place from July 22-25, is the latest large-scale event to join the third round of pilots, announced this week.
The ERP is being used to provide scientific data and research into how small and large-scale events could be permitted in line with the roadmap, with the latest round of events to follow the announcement of the four-week extension to the COVID-19 roadmap.
Latitude will see headline sets from Wolf Alice, The Chemical Brothers, Bastille and Bombay Bicycle Club.
As with all pilot events, ticketholders will be required proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within 48 hours of arrival at the festival, or proof of full vaccination with the second dose having been received at least 14 days prior to the first day of attending the festival.
Festival director Melvin Benn said: “We have been working extremely hard to make sure that Latitude Festival can go ahead safely at full capacity. Becoming an ERP event gives us the security of going ahead. Crucially the additional research collected at Latitude will benefit all festivals and live events moving forward. Everyone will be welcome to attend as long as they have a negative lateral flow test or proof of two vaccinations.
“After many months without live music and arts, we are ecstatic to return with a full capacity festival. Restarting festivals is crucially important to the wellbeing of everyone in society and we hope that Latitude will be the first of many festivals to take place this summer!”
The announcement follows the Download festival, which welcomed 10,000 people to Donnington Park as part of the ERP. Benn, who is managing director of the Festival Republic group, which also organises Download, said the festival provided “100-per-cent evidence” that large-scale music events can take place safely in the current climate.
Other pilot events unveiled during this third round of the ERP include the UEFA Euro 2020 semi-finals and final at Wembley Stadium, The Open Championship golf competition and several rugby league matches.
More than 60,000 fans will be permitted to attend the 90,000-capacity Wembley.
The news comes amid unrest in the live entertainment sectors relating to the government refusing to publish results of the first phase of the ERP. Live music and theatre organisations yesterday (Thursday) launched legal action against the UK government to force it to publicly release the data.
Image: @markheybo/CC BY 2.0/Edited for size
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