Government backed Covid insurance. These words don’t sound terribly exciting. Yet they increasingly could be the difference between numerous festivals happening this year, and well, these festivals not happening.

Allow me to explain. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a while ago that he hopes to remove all legal restrictions on mass gatherings by June 21st in England. The other three nations of the UK have not yet set a date for such a seismic commitment.

A number of festivals have taken a chance and announced that they’re going ahead. 51st State Festival, Parklife and others have all been busy selling tickets in the past few weeks to events that even they don’t know if they’ll be allowed to run. As far as business practices go, this is risky to borderline reckless.

On Friday, the Barn At The Farm festival announced they were not going ahead this year due to the lack of a government backed Covid insurance scheme. Private companies, somewhat understandably, are extremely reluctant to cover cancellations caused by a pandemic.

Ominous warnings are in the air that more cancellations will happen unless the government steps in and quickly. So far, there is no sign whatsoever of that happening – and the blame appears to be with Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor.

Perhaps David Cameron might be able to help. Aside from the fact this wouldn’t be the first time they’ve spoken recently, it’s long believed that Cameron attended raves many years ago – if this still from a 1988 video at Sunrise is anything to go by.