With festivals dropping like Tory promises on PPE the worlds greatest Punk Festival, Rebellion, has provided an update on its possible 2020 gathering at the resplendent Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
“COVID-19 – APRIL UPDATE
Hi Rebellion Family.
We thought we’d just give you an update on our position regarding this years event. When we first made a statement over a month ago, August was 5 months away and the hope was that we would all be through the other side of this by then. We promised you that we’d review the situation and if there were any changes we’d let you know. The longer this drags on, the less likely we’ll be able to put on the festival ‘as advertised’. It’s inevitable that we’re going to lose some touring bands and we expect bands to start to pull tours and reschedule for next year in the coming weeks. We have replacements but there will inevitably be some pull outs of bands people were looking forward to seeing.
The frustrating part is that there is no exit strategy from the UK government, so we’re still in limbo on whether the festival will be allowed to take place or not regardless. The current indications are that the restrictions will be in place until at least the end of June. How they are then lifted is anyone’s guess. Whether or not the relaxing of the lockdown includes indoor events such as Rebellion remains to be seen. Whether you guys will WANT to attend an indoor event then is also a major factor. For the time being we’re still taking the view that it is business as usual for this year. HOWEVER – we’re mindful of peoples opinions and our community is so important to us. We just wanted you to know that we’ve not got our heads in the sand and we’re looking at all options. We do value your opinions too. We say it time and again that Rebellion is a family. Feel free to voice your thoughts in this thread. We DO read them all, even if we don’t get the time to respond individually.
Obviously there’s uncertainty so we’re also busy making contingency plans for other scenarios such as postponing to a later date or having a year off and keeping the tickets until next year. Both of those scenarios require a mountain of work logistically and we need to make sure that we’ve got everything in place for it to work should we not be able to go ahead this year.
There’s still 111 Days to go until doors open. So much has changed in a few weeks so who knows what the situation will be like when there’s still a third of the year to go! However, we’re being realistic and speaking to bands / agents / Blackpool council and the Winter Gardens on a regular basis. But we also wanted to make sure that we kept you guys in the loop too.
Fingers crossed we can save 2020 but we’re also busy making sure that if it can’t go ahead as planned then we can actually save Rebellion by making sure that our alternative plans work for everyone.
We’ll give you a further update once we’ve got all our options dialled in and we can see what can and can’t work.
More importantly, we hope you and your loved ones are safe and well and a big thank you to all the KEY WORKERS. Let’s hope that the one good thing to come out of this is an appreciation of the people that do the essential jobs who for so long have been taken for granted. We Love You x”
For more Rebellion information follow the Festivals Facebook page.