The 'Sledgehammer' hitmaker, who co-founded the music event, explains that he and his partners are not able to continue amid COVID-19 uncertainty without the support of a government insurance.
- Jun 29, 2021
AceShowbiz - Peter Gabriel has followed through on his threat to cancel the upcoming Womad music festival to save the event in future years.
The rocker announced he feared for the world music event, which was scheduled for next month (July 2021), if he and his partners didn't receive government insurance.
In a BBC Radio 4 interview, Gabriel said, "In some ways I'm speaking for a lot of the festival industry, particularly the independents, because we're not asking for handouts. What we need is the security, because most of us can't take the risk of losing everything once we committed to the set up."
"Commercial insurance has run a mile, effectively, and you can understand why. So, if we're trying to restore cultural life and normality we need a bit of help here. There's too much uncertainty for most festival promoters to take the risk."
"We've been faced with bankruptcy on two occasions previous and if we're trying to secure the future of the festival, which is very important to us, and our staff, we can't risk sinking it this year."
The "Sledgehammer" hitmaker, who co-founded the event, has now stated this year's festival will not be going ahead, adding, "Without the simple support of a government insurance scheme or the guarantee of Test Event status, we cannot continue and put Womad's long-term future at risk."
"We feel that our audience, artists, staff, and contractors, who have been amazingly supportive throughout all this, will understand the need for us to act to guarantee our survival."
