Covid: Wales' festivals 'disadvantaged' by no lockdown end date

Wales' festivals could be "left behind" if no date is given for ending Covid restrictions, organisers of the Royal Welsh Show have said.

England has a "target date" of 19 July and Scotland plans to lift remaining legal restrictions on 9 August, but no date has been given in Wales.

The Royal Welsh Agricultural Society's Steve Hughson said Wales' "cautious approach" was now becoming untenable.

The Welsh government said it had a regular 21-day review process.

There have only been minor changes to Covid rules in Wales since the start of June, after First Minister Mark Drakeford announced a pause in order to "reduce the peak number of daily hospital admissions" and allow time to vaccinate more people.

Since 7 June, large outdoor events, such as concerts, football matches and organised runs, have been able to go ahead for crowds of up to 4,000 people standing or 10,000 people sitting down.

Organisers must undertake full risk assessments and put in place measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus, including social distancing.

The 2021 Royal Welsh Show is being held virtually for a second year, but organisers hope it will return to Llanelwedd near Builth Wells, in Powys in 2022.

Mr Hughson, chief executive of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society, said: "The differences across the border are causing frustration, commercial disadvantage and confusion with people coming across the border.

"We need Welsh government to take a long hard look and there is a lot of pressure for them to do something in the next weeks and months to align.

"There's a fear that Wales will be left behind, or left on its own.

"I congratulate Welsh government for its cautious approach and vaccine roll out, which has left it with some of the best numbers in the UK, but that cautious approach is now becoming untenable.

"We can no longer rely on this when England and Scotland are open for business."

Joe Worley is the co-founder of Westival festival near Manobier in Pembrokeshire.

The 2021 event had been planned from 22-26 July, but has been moved to 2022.

He said: "They've said festivals can go ahead if they're socially distanced, but what's been frustrating is the lack of advice and guidance on how to actually do that."

The planned restriction end dates in England and Scotland have left him with mixed emotions: "Obviously I'm really, really happy that those things [festivals in England and Scotland] are going to go ahead, it means that a lot of people do get like a festival kind of summer, but I guess it is frustrating to see that we've kind of not followed suit.

"We've vaccinated more people than anyone else in the UK so it seems like we should be ahead of England, if anything."

Joseph Fort is the co-artistic director of October's Cowbridge Music Festival in Vale of Glamorgan.

He said they had planned for three different scenarios - 2m social distancing, 1m social distancing and no restrictions - if distancing is in place, they plan to run each event twice.

He said planning had been "tricky" but they had received a lot of support: "The British Association of Festivals have been really helpful and the key thing we've done is talk to everybody else doing other festivals - everybody seems to be taking different gambles, but we're all looking at what each other are doing and talking to each other a lot."

He does not think having a lockdown end date in Wales would have helped: "I think that the English guidelines kind of give the illusion of security... we may have to have further lockdown in the autumn.

"In October, wherever the festival was, there are just still so many unknowns that we don't just don't really know."

But head of Wales at the Federation of Small Businesses Ben Cottam said it was really important "that the first minister now comes up with a timeline".

"Welsh government has to move on the public health data that it has available, but it is really important that businesses have a time scale to plan to," he added.

A Welsh government spokesman said: "Decisions on the way forward on any further relaxation of restrictions on events will be taken as part of the regular 21-day review process.

"The onus is on the event organiser, in this instance the director, to undertake a full risk assessment and put in place any necessary mitigations."