So it’s been postponed. Again. The 40,000 capacity Terminal V festival in Edinburgh was originally due to take place in March 2020. Then this thing called Covid-19 – you might have heard of it once or twice over the past 18 months – came along. Suddenly, we all had to stay at home and clapped for NHS staff on Thursday nights.

Then it was rescheduled to February 2021. This wasn’t to be either – although specifics do vary between the four nations, the UK was in a deep lockdown to reduce a massive winter wave of the virus. So it was to Halloween they went. They can hold the event this time, but they decided against following a meeting with City of Edinburgh Council.

They cite the “extreme pressure currently facing the NHS” as a reason and say “the event has been deemed a higher risk at this time than any other event currently scheduled to go ahead in Scotland”. Pressure on the NHS is already being cited in Northern Ireland as the reason why nightclubs in the province remain closed.

Which begs the question. Is this essentially what this winter is going to look like? The truth is no one is quite sure how prevalent Covid will be this winter. Last year, the vaccine rollout was only just starting – whereas it’s pretty much completed now. Exactly how much this will reduce its spread is very uncertain.

So I can’t help but wonder whether we’ll see more of this over the next few months. I expect more clubs and festivals will end up having “meetings” with councils and being “advised” to postpone. When in reality, the council will take a dim view at licence renewal time if you have the temerity to refuse.

You read it on Amateur’s House first…