“It sent a very bad signal,” Olivier Garnier, a spokesman for Hellfest, one of the biggest events in France, said in a telephone interview. Hellfest hosts about 60,000 heavy metal fans annually and the 2021 repeat, scheduled for June, has already sold out.
On Monday, Hellfest sent a three-page letter to Roselyne Bachelot, the French Minister of Culture, to ask for certainty whether the event could take place, and suggests that the festival can test participants of the virus on arrival.
Bachelot on Tuesday rejected the idea that tests would be enough to make festivals take place. ‘It’s fantastic!’, ‘She told a French parliamentary committee, adding that festivals are an obvious possible place where people can sing, drink and dance together.
The picture is not entirely bad all over the continent. In Denmark, festivals are preparing to continue, Esben Marcher of Dansk Live, a body representing the festival’s organizers, said in a telephone interview.
“Of course, the news from Glastonbury is a big sign for the rest of Europe,” he said, “but my point is that building the site is a much bigger and longer process than for others.” Glastonbury is taking months to prepare its fields to organize the event, Marcher said. Service events can be presented within a few weeks.
In December, Roskilde, the biggest festival in Denmark planned for June, announced rapper Kendrick Lamar as a main liner. Signe Lopdrup, CEO of Roskilde, said in an email that she was “cautiously optimistic” about its progress.