September 2021

EVENTS
2021 Postponement -
The Full Story
DEVA FEST
Deva Fest’s founder Phil Marston reveals the full thinking behind his event’s
postponement this year – a common story, with nearly 60% of other festivals in the
same position
IT’S TIME to a draw a line under
something I get asked it all the time: ‘Why
didn’t you put Deva Fest on in 2021 when
other festivals are going ahead?’
I’ll try to answer as honestly as I can. It’s
a fairly lengthy read…
When the team took the decision to
postpone this year’s Deva Fest back
in June, the government had not yet
confirmed that Covid restrictions would be
lifted in time for August or that events like
ours could go ahead this summer. They
hadn’t confirmed what Covid measures
(if any) we were expected to take to keep
attendees safe. Covid rates were rising and
festivalgoers were starting to tell us they
felt unsafe heading back into crowds so
soon after (during?) the pandemic.
It left us in an awful position – carry on
planning and take a huge financial and
reputational risk in the hope that Boris
and friends would throw us a bone, that
numbers of cases would drop, and the
delayed “Freedom Day” would happen?
“WE NOW KNOW THAT WE
COULD HAVE SOLDIERED ON
WITH THE 2021 SHOW AND
RESTRICTIONS WERE LIFTED
JUST IN TIME FOR THE EVENT
TO BE ABLE TO GO AHEAD”
Or protect the future of the event by
accepting that there were just too many
factors out of our control, not least our
visitors’ safety.
I won’t lie – it was devastating to have to
make that call. We had an amazing 2019
and so many people were buzzing about
our event. We’d sold the best part of 90%
of our tickets, and the others would have
flown out judging by the amount of people
hovering over the ticket basket (yeah, we
can see!).
We now know that we could have
soldiered on with the 2021 show and
restrictions were lifted just in time for the
event to be able to go ahead.
But that’s not the full story.
Firstly, we had to read the room. So
many were telling us they didn’t feel safe
heading into crowds so quickly. This is
supposed to be about fun, family, good
times and great entertainment – not
feeling nervous that attending could make
you ill.
Then there is the “Pingdemic” which
is playing havoc with the economy. With
folk everywhere getting pinged to isolate
by the NHS app we just couldn’t take the
risk that we would have enough people to
safely operate the event, and you can see
the effect that staff shortages are having
on everything from hospitality to transport
and retail.
One of our headliners (Sophie Ellis-
Bextor) was isolating as her children
had tested positive, and our reoccurring
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