We are concluding this strangest of years on a happy note with the release of a brand new live LP ‘What to Look For in Summer’. The album is released December 11th on @matadorrecords!
Pre-order here on CD and 2xLP. https://t.co/NW6SoBbuGp pic.twitter.com/HqEUXaHK2y

— belle & sebastian (@bellesglasgow) October 27, 2020

The press release declares that What To Look For In Summer is “the sound of a band that’s always moving forward, a picture of Belle and Sebastian in 2019 that gives equal weight to early days and recent years”. Scanning the track-list to find cult favourites like ‘The Fox In The Snow’ alongside new singles like ‘We Were Beautiful’ confirms that this will be a wonderful collaborative effort between their early, twee days and their later, pop efforts, showcasing, no doubt, some of the best of their varied albums.

Speaking about putting the project together, frontman Stuart Murdoch said lightly, “we’d been badgered by our fan base to put out recordings of the shows … Touring the band is something that I never thought we’d do. It’s turned into the thrill of a lifetime, really, in a manifest, physical way. It’s just the nicest experience that I think I’ve had in my life.”

To announce the album, they have shared two new music videos set to live tracks: ‘My Wandering Days Are Over’ and ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’. The first is incredibly on form for Belle & Sebastian: a meet-cute on two escalators going in opposite directions, followed by a day of wandering Glasgow.

‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’ is not fictional, but rather completely joyful clips of the band playing sensible and silly instruments alike from their respective homes. It combines the lockdown experience with all of the thrills of live music; you can hear every note and every cheer. You even get that final, immortal line that you can never quite catch on the recording: “Sunday bathtime could take a while…”

Stuart chats and adlibs and jokes through the end of the track and I realise that this is the kind of intimacy of a live performance that I didn’t even realise I had missed. Obviously, there is being in the crowd – that seems like a lifetime ago – but there is also being in the moment, and knowing that it is different to every other night of a tour for exactly that reason.

Both are filmed like all the best classic Belle & Sebastian videos – vivid colours, camera quality that leaves just a little to be desired, making a whole story out of the streets of Glasgow. ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’ is so unbelievably contagious (even twenty-two years on) that when the camera pans round, you can see some neighbours dancing from their balcony. It seems likely that What To Look For In Summer will continue to emit this delightful energy in spades for the duration of its twenty three tracks.

Belle & Sebastian are a band that can’t really sit still. Their latest project was Days of the Bagnold Summer, starring Earl Cave and directed by Simon Bird, who you’ll know from The Inbetweeners and Friday Night Dinner. The film is adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by Joff Winterheart, and Earl Cave plays the lead character who is obsessed with metal and Metalllica. Naturally, Belle & Sebastian wrote and recorded the whole soundtrack.

What To Look For In Summer will be released on December 11 via Matador. You can peruse the tracklist below, where you’ll likely spot some old and forgotten favourites. If the two videos released today are anything to go by, Belle & Sebastian will be injecting them with something great and making them feel brand new again.

1. The Song of The Clyde £ >
2. Dirty Dream Number Two *
3. Step Into My Office, Baby *
4. We Were Beautiful +
5. Seeing Other People %
6. If She Wants Me @
7. Beyond The Sunrise &
8. Wrapped Up In Books +
9. Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John $
10. Nice Day For A Sulk (digital only) #
11. I Can See Your Future *
12. Funny Little Frog ^
13. The Fox In The Snow+
14. If You’re Feeling Sinister*
15. My Wandering Days Are Over*
16. The Wrong Girl #
17. Stay Loose%
18. The Boy Done Wrong Again #
19. Poor Boy%
20. Dog On Wheels%
21. The Boy With The Arab Strap+
22. I Didn’t See It Coming+
23. Belle And Sebastian #

£ recorded Banchory Studios, Glasgow, August 6, 2020 (digital version)
> recorded by Kenneth McKellar (vinyl + CD versions)
* The Boaty Weekender, August 10, 2019
+ Royal Oak Theatre, Michigan, July 21, 2019
% Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, July 12, 2019
# House Of Blues, Boston, MA, July 13, 2019
^ M-Telus, Montreal, QC, July 15, 2019
@ Carnegie Hall – Pittsburgh, PA, July 18, 2019
& House Of Blues, Cleveland, OH, July 19, 2019
$ Auditoria Baluarte, Pamplona, Barcelona, November 4, 2019

Tune into @BBCR1 tonight from 6:45pm to hear All I Need for the first time. @philytaggart stepping in for @AnnieMac will be giving it a first play. pic.twitter.com/8CjNZphGpV

— Jake Bugg (@JakeBugg) October 26, 2020

‘All I Need’ is sort of anthemic, sort of pop, complete with Bugg’s distinctive voice. It’s about not quite fitting in, and the value of that, and about making yourself stand out in your own way. All I need is evidence of Bugg’s style becoming slicker and more refined, with a video of the same quality to match. His previous two singles this year have both been a little more stereotypically ‘Jake Bugg’, mainly aided by being acoustic. ‘All I Need’ sounds closer to a stadium filler.

The video is all in black and white, a series of high-quality vignettes of basketball and dancing and police shields. Although it doesn’t exactly have a storyline, there’s a sense of triumph and euphoria throughout it, of rising up and overcoming. You can watch it below.

All of these singles are rumoured to build up to a new album, although the specific details of it are currently still a mystery. Earlier this year, ‘Saviours of the City’ was accompanied by a short art film interspersed with psychedelic shots. It juxtaposes the monotony of staying in (all too familiar to us all) with the lurid technicolour of making it into the real word. Unlike ‘All I Need’, which has all the energy of a fight to break out, the visualiser for ‘Saviours of the City’ is gentle, although I would say it is not exactly comforting. Bugg brings an element of grit to many of his creative projects.

The pandemic has somewhat interrupted Bugg’s progress on the album front; before live music ground to a halt, he was playing warm up shows ahead of the announcement of his new album. Either way, it is still expected to arrive this year, following 2017’s Hearts That Strain.

Obviously avatars are second nature to Gorillaz, although 2D, Murdoc and the rest of the gang have a little more character than the round-faced, smiley Nintendo figures. It’s an ambitious crossover though, since they exist on two quite different ends of the same spectrum.

The musicians performed their new collaboration ‘The Valley of the Pagans’ which comes from Gorillaz’s new album Song Machine: Season One – Strange Timez. They were joined by Beck, the collaborator on ‘The Valley of the Pagans’, in The concept of a virtual live performance in this style doesn’t seem likely to replace live music any time soon, but it’s interesting to watch it being executed (and the song is certainly just as good over Animal Crossing). It’s a little less impressive than a fully blown Gorillaz VR extravaganza.

The interview begins at 48 minutes and the performance at 1 hr 27. Whether or not the Animal Crossing aesthetic is for you, the content of the interview is brilliant, with Albarn and Hewlett both very relaxed and honest.

“We share a little bit of creative DNA,” Whitta says, referring to the fact that Gorillaz and Animal Talking both inhabit the virtual world. They also speak about the power of the internet to bring people together, especially in these strange and distanced times. It’s true, that it feels comfortingly like a talk show to see Albarn and Hewlett sat next to one another on a couch, even if digitally.

Gorillaz have played with form since they first burst onto the scene, and Song Machine is no exception. In the press release, virtual Gorillaz member Russel Hobbs declared: “Song Machine is a whole new way of doing what we do, Gorillaz breaking the mould ‘cos the mould got old. World is moving faster than a supercharged particle, so we’ve gotta stay ready to drop. We don’t even know who’s stepping through the studio next. Song Machine feeds on the unknown, runs on pure chaos. So whatever the hell’s coming, we’re primed and ready to produce like there’s no tomorrow.”

‘Season One’ is released in ‘episodes’; the latest, ‘The Valley of the Pagans’, was leaked prior to its official release, but it will be with us soon. Gorillaz have always had stellar collaborations, and this is no different – the line-up features Robert Smith, Slaves, Slowthai, St Vincent and more.

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SONG MACHINE TOUR 2021 Pssst, for first access to 2021 tour tickets, purchase your copy of Song Machine with a Circle of Friendz Pass at gorillaz.com NOW Gorillaz.com/tour

A post shared by Gorillaz (@gorillaz) on Oct 23, 2020 at 4:29am PDT

Gorillaz announced a huge show at the The O2 for August 2021. They also committed to returning to the virtual sphere for a live stream event to celebrate the release of their new album, which will take place in December. You can see the dates of their series of real-life shows below.

16/06/21 – Tanzbrunnen – Cologne
18/06 – Parkbühne Wuhlheide – Berlin
01/07 – Rockhal – Luxembourg
11/07 – The O2 – London

Mayor Andy Burnham said the following, in the midst of his negotiations with Downing Street: “What we’ve seen today is a deliberate act of levelling down … I don’t believe we can proceed through this pandemic by grinding people down. We need to carry them with us, not crush their spirit.” At this point he had failed to secure a financial support package – subsequently, Boris Johnson has announced an additional £60 million will be divided between Manchester’s boroughs.

Manchester has always had a huge and vibrant music scene, and it has always inspired a huge amount of local pride in the musicians it has cultivated. Many of them turned to Twitter today to voice their discontent. These range from the eloquent, to the cryptically rude.

A Certain Ratio simply declared, “We’re with you @AndyBurnhamGM, and everyone in Greater Manchester.” Primal Scream took a firm and political stance with their tweet, “Good on @AndyBurnhamGM standing up for the people of Manchester. Tories hate the working class north in the same way they despise Scots / Welsh / Irish / Blacks / Muslims. #ClassWar  #ToryCorruption #HitTheNorth.”

We’re with you @AndyBurnhamGM, and everyone in Greater Manchester.

— A Certain Ratio (@acrmcr) October 20, 2020

Good on @AndyBurnhamGM standing up for the people of Manchester. Tories hate the working class north in the same way they despise Scots / Welsh / Irish / Blacks / Muslims. #ClassWar #ToryCorruption #HitTheNorth

— Primal Scream (@ScreamOfficial) October 21, 2020

The lead singer of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly held a similar, angry position to Primal Scream with the following: “The north of England and the devolved Nations deserve a lot more respect from Central Government. It’s embarrassing and frankly insulting to millions of people.” Blossoms’ drummer, Joe Donovan, shared a photo from an edited Transport for London service board that has been circulating in the #IStandWithManchester hashtag.

The north of England and the devolved Nations deserve a lot more respect from Central Government. It’s embarrassing and frankly insulting to millions of people. — Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (@forgetcape) October 20, 2020

pic.twitter.com/KwwP1siEG4

— Joe Donovan (@JoeDonovan92) October 21, 2020

Finally, many have interpreted the following Liam Gallagher tweet as a response to the government’s handling of Manchester’s predicament. Gallagher is notoriously prolific online.

SHIT SHOW — Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) October 21, 2020

The music world is already painfully familiar with the way that the pandemic is capable of bringing absolutely everything to a standstill. Just today, it was estimated that up to 170,000 jobs in the live music industry could be lost – before the end of 2020. Andy Burnham’s statement about not grinding one another down takes on even more significance in this worrying context.

Oh my gosh I can’t believe I’m finally saying this man, I’m tearing up a bit as I write this…can’t wait for you to hear it!!! The vid for green eyes will be out at 7pm. So much news! I’m so fkin pumped You can pre-order my album now!! https://t.co/TBcIrJT1Lu

— Arlo Parks (@arloparks) October 20, 2020

According to a press release, Parks’ album is “a series of vignettes and intimate portraits surrounding my adolescence and the people that shaped it. It is rooted in storytelling and nostalgia – I want it to feel both universal and hyper specific.” When asked by Gigwise what inspires her songs, she declared “My friends, flowers, after-parties, living rooms, parks, beaches and long drives.” Somewhere in these remarkably eloquent and intentional descriptions, you have the full picture of what Parks is capable of.

Latest single ‘Green Eyes’ borrows the talented vocals of US singer and all-round legend Clairo, and their combined voices and Parks’ incredible song-writing is breath-taking at points. ‘Green Eyes’ is sort of a bit dreamy, hazy, indie, a bit beats-driven and chill, and even a bit early 2000s pop all at once. Lyrically, it is nothing short of poetic. Parks delves into her early and bittersweet romantic memories, and her experience of her sexuality growing up. “Of course I know why we lasted two months / Could not hold my hand in public” is heart-wrenching.

Parks is not exactly known for shying away from complicated and potentially heavy subject matter. ‘Black Dog’, the first single from the album now known as Collapsed In Sunbeams, presents the realities of mental illness with stark and tragic honesty. She has been called the “voice of a generation” multiple times, a description which Parks takes seriously. Without becoming hung up on the term ‘gen-z’, it’s true that Parks, like many of her contemporaries, carries a weight in her song-writing that seems to derive from any combination of social media, mental health awareness and the specific experience of being a teenager in the last decade.

Arlo Parks has had a crazy busy year. Some highlights include: putting out three amazing singles and a string of moving covers, embarking on her first headline tour, winning the AIM Independent Music Award for One to Watch, winning over almost every radio DJ and working on some incredible collaborations. The latest of these include her recent appearance on Glass Animals’ live stream for a new version of ‘Tangerine’, and her Radio 1 Live Session with Phoebe Bridgers, recorded in a church. Just recently, she shared her first cover in French for Deezer’s InVersions mixtape (Park’s mother is French, so she considered it a special moment).

When Parks embarked on 2020, she was fresh out of her A-Levels, ready to headline a tour and generally right on the edge of something great. Despite, well, everything, this year has truly been hers. When New Year rolls around, she will be set to release her debut album and we can expect her to well and truly take off.

my debut album

BUILD A PROBLEM

is out March 5th

the first single, COOL GIRL
will be premiered on @BBCR1 TONIGHT at 6pm as @AnnieMac ‘s Hottest Record

the album will be available to preorder at https://t.co/Og7lz947iR after it’s been played

SEE YOU THERE! pic.twitter.com/qVt2kOd9yF

— dodie (@doddleoddle) October 19, 2020

Build A Problem is Dodie’s first album, but it follows a series of carefully crafted EPs with cult followings: Intertwined, You and Human. She is famous for her acoustic style and her cuttingly honest lyrics about everything: love and loss, mental health, growing up alongside the internet, sexuality. ‘Cool Girl’, the first single from Build A Problem, is no different.

‘Cool Girl’ is three minutes of Dodie’s trademark intimacy with her fans; she lays herself bare, insecurities, vulnerabilities and all, in few words and a succinct and catchy chorus. She talks candidly with Annie Mac about how the sentiment of the song – making oneself a little quieter, a little more aloof and ultimately less engaged – is not something that she wishes to promote, but just to acknowledge how people go through it sometimes.

‘Cool Girl’ was a last-minute addition to an album that has been in the works for some time; Dodie wrote it in lockdown and recorded it as some of the restrictions eased up. It is stripped back but stylish, and for fans it will likely feel like the natural progression of Dodie’s ever-growing musical talents. The harmonies are harrowing. You can watch the lyric video below.

The honesty of ‘Cool Girl’ anticipates the rest of Build A Problem, Dodie declares. She told the Metro: ‘I was very unsure of who I was and I was trying to figure it out in music … so I think it’s quite unstable of an album – but it’s definitely honest.’

On Annie Mac’s Future Sounds, she speaks about her mixed feelings about being honest, and having to be honest in interviews and other promotional material throughout the press cycle of Build A Problem. Make no mistake – Dodie sounds extremely excited to be releasing an album, but she is clear about its mental challenges and the care that needs taking with some of her subject matter. Her fans will undoubtedly be grateful though; Dodie has always had a remarkable way of just sharing reality.

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FAKE IT FLOWERS IS FINALLY OUT FOR THE WORLD TO HEAR WTF. I really didn’t expect this much anticipation on this album let alone people even giving a fuck so this is crazy to me. I hope you enjoyed this world we created for you guys, from the music videos, to the live sessions to the artwork, i and everyone involved worked so hard on this and it’s so strange it’s finally out in the world I’m so proud of this album, I wrote every song in my little smelly bedroom and wear my heart on my sleeve, Cry to it, dance to it, hate it, love it, I hope it makes you feel something because it’s fucking sick. Reading all the reviews feels like a dream I’m so happy Thank you fake it flowers for existing and letting me vomit my feelings out. I’m gonna get in my pants and dance to this album in my bedroom now and I hope you do the same you guys are sick, I hope this album makes you feel badass I love u

A post shared by beabadoobee (@radvxz) on Oct 15, 2020 at 4:02pm PDT

In case you missed her phenomenal rise to fame online, Beabadoobee is the stage name of Beatrice Laus who was born in the Philippines and raised in London, where she attended and was subsequently kicked out of a Catholic all-girls school. All of this is important because all of it finds its way into her music one way or another – for twenty years old, she is insightful about the real world. ‘

Care’ is one of the best openings to an album in a very long time – impeccably tight and bursting with just the right amount of pop, it is the grunge declaration that Beabadoobee’s fans have been waiting for. In forty minutes, Fake It Flowers then races through styles, emotions and catchy lyrics – a whistle-stop tour of Beatrice Laus’ listening habits and influences. In every interview, she name-drops a series of inspirations: Pavement (anyone who knows about her will know this), The Cranberries, Elliott Smith, Lush, Smashing Pumpkins. All of them are here.

‘Charlie Brown’ covers a difficult subject for Beabadoobee with regard to her own mental health. Followed by ‘Emo Song’ (we’ve all been there), the middle section of the album is heavy in a way that will surely really resonate with her fans and their experiences. She is well aware that despite her nineties fascination, she occupies a moment when teenagers’ lives can be complicated and messy, and you have a sense that she is relieved to be honest about this.

‘Horen Sarrison’ is the loveliest love song; it reads like a ode to being young and in love and it flitting between massive feelings and the comforting cornerstones of your day-to-day life. These are as mundane as the last bus, but I know what she means when she conjures up the last bus in her meditation on love.

‘Yoshimi. Forest. Magdalene’ evidently owes something major to The Flaming Lips, and it also contains the most relatable opening lines of 2020: “He—, hold up, fuck / He—, what the fuck? / Sounds like a fart … / He smells very nice.” While Laus covers some difficult and personal ground across the album, sometimes they are just the lyrics of what’s important to a twenty year old girl, and that matters too.

Fake It Flowers listening paaaaartttyyyy Saturday night. Follow #FAKEITFLOWERS and press play at 7pm UK. pic.twitter.com/Ltp4OMPCJz

— beabadoobee (@beabad00bee) October 15, 2020

From her rise to fame on Tiktok, with ‘death bed (coffee for your head)’, those who were just keeping half an eye out for what she was up to might not have registered the depth of her grunge sensibility. Fake It Flowers is a fully-fledged, layered, clashing album of wall-of-sound guitar followed by slow, personal acoustic moments. Beabadoobee knows her stuff about the nineties. When asked by The Independent what she used her first professional pay check from her record label to buy, she told them, “a Francoise Hardy single on vinyl from Rough Trade and a cardigan”.

‘Loom’ is both gentle and urgent, built around one repetitive refrain. It builds intensely, and then everything falls away, leaving the piano and a whisper of unintelligible lyrics. It carries the listener along at every turn.

Speaking of the whole experience of putting together ‘Loom’, Arnalds says, “I am a long time fan of Bonobo and have been fortunate enough to get to know Simon as a friend in the last few years. Last year we spent a couple of days in the studio, after traveling and camping in the Icelandic highlands, with no intention other than to spend some quality time with music. Later, as I started working on the album, I kept coming back to that one piece, ‘Loom’, as it felt like the perfect album opener. We kept working on it remotely early this spring and the end result is something I’m incredibly proud of.”

Bonobo (real name: Simon Green) said this, “’Loom’ was one of the pieces we worked on together during that time. It was a real honour to create something with Ólafur. A friend and someone I admire greatly.”

Loom ft. @si_bonobo
15.10.20 pic.twitter.com/QSifn23HYv

— Ólafur Arnalds (@OlafurArnalds) October 13, 2020

‘Loom’ is almost completely the other end of the spectrum to Bonobo’s previous collaboration: ‘Heartbreak’, with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. First shared at the end of September, this is a disco-driven, 70s inspired, NYC track through and through, and you can hardly imagine it in the Icelandic highlands. In fact, ‘Heartbreak’ will become the first 12” to be shared on Bonobo’s new label OUTLIER, on November 13. His consistent versatility is inspiring.

Bonobo has certainly been stirring these last few months – until recently, his latest project was his own studio album, Migration, released in 2017. Now, as of October, he has shared two new collaborations, a record label, and even a recent remix of Mercury Prize winner Michael Kiwanuka’s ‘Final Days’ – Bonobo’s first remix since 2016.

Arnalds is also busy in the run up to some kind of peace; he has shared ‘Woven Song’, ‘We Contain Multitudes’ and ‘Back To The Sky’ (a collaboration with JFDR) already. some kind of peace will come out on November 6. Fans won’t have to wait long to see it live (virtually, anyway); he has been announced as the closing act of the first night of Iceland Airwaves’ online festival, Live From Reykjavík, on November 13 at 11pm.

Tonight’s (October 14) event was none other than Pulp in all their irreverent glory, from a concert recorded in 2012. Teenage Cancer Trust have shared a small snippet of it: ‘This Is Hardcore’, ‘Common People’, ‘Babies’ and ‘Disco 2000’. This unseen fragment of Pulp at the Royal Albert Hall is fun and energetic and a truly great reminder of what live music is like at its best – we should all be grateful for the memory!

TONIGHT! @pulp2011 are next up in our Unseen ‘mini-gig’ series, created from archive footage of #TeenageCancerGigs at the @RoyalAlbertHall.
.
Watch at 8pm on our Unseen YouTube channel: https://t.co/gRsazEtdHr pic.twitter.com/l3edaKCpA4

— Teenage Cancer Trust (@TeenageCancer) October 14, 2020

It’s worth watching solely for the moment when Jarvis drops to the ground and throws his legs up in the air like he’s going to do a shoulder stand. Richard Hawley is also there, on a flashy red electric guitar. As usual, Pulp’s energy is completely infectious and by half way through “com-mon peo-ple” you’ll hardly be sitting still. (Maybe I should confess that it’s my biggest regret that I’ve never seen Pulp live).

This footage feels like a real product of its time. In part, this is due to seeing the crowd socialise in close proximity and not in giant plastic bubbles, like The Flaming Lips tested out last night in Oklahoma. Also, Jarvis tells the audience affectionately that they can’t stay out too late because he has to go off and do his radio show the next day, taking us all back to Sunday afternoons of Jarvis’ carefully curated BBC 6 Music slot.

And, of course, all of this has always been for a great cause. Teenage Cancer Trust are celebrating their twentieth year of supporting young people through such a harrowing and lonely occurrence, and their numerous testimonies prove just how important this work really is. The slogan for TCT Unseen is simply “TEENAGE CANCER HASN’T STOPPED. SO WE CAN’T STOP.”

The rest of their Unseen line-up contains just as many fan favourites – you can see the entire list below. They’ve already put out sets from Muse, Paul McCartney and Stereophonics, and they’re building up to a full-length feature of The Cure’s 2014 performance to be streamed on Saturday 31^st October.  After each livestream, the shows remain on Youtube with all of the donation information, so you can watch later on and still have the opportunity to make a difference.

Teenage Cancer Trust are the only UK charity that commit to supporting all of the needs of their young people. They fund specialist cancer units, youth support coordinators and even events and networks for people with experience of cancer to come together in safe and supportive spaces. Like so many charities and industries, a great part of their fundraising and their community has been seriously affected by the pandemic. By reaching into their archives for material like this, they have gone some way to recapturing the magic of Teenage Cancer Trust for their fans, the way that music always has the power to.

 Teenage Cancer Trust ‘Unseen’ Line-up:

08/10/20 – Ed Sheeran
09/10 – Muse
10/10 – Rudimental
11/10 – Paul McCartney
12/10 – Paul Weller
13/10 – Stereophonics
14/10 – Pulp
15/10 – Noel Gallagher
16/10 – Them Crooked Vultures
17/10 – The Who
18/10 – The Cure
31/10 – The Cure – full live stream

The advice comes from a collaboration between the following bodies: the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), the Events Industry Forum (EIF) and Attitude Is Everything, alongside additional guidance from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and Public Health England (PHE). They have shared their current guidance in a document which you can read in full here. As the situation progresses, the advice will update.

Available now and free to all from @ThePurpleGuide website. The aim is to assist festival organisers, local authorities and other industry parties in assessing risk levels and planning based on a flexible, pragmatic and realistic approach to the current pandemic.

— AIF (@AIF_UK) October 13, 2020

The COVID-19 Supplementary Guidance offers a lot of information for festival organisers that will perhaps be of little interest to festival-goers. Naturally, much of this advice depends on a number of constantly changing variables, including the situation with testing for coronavirus and the potential for a vaccine to be in place. Terms that have become part of our everyday vocabulary come up here as well; there is talk of festival staff wearing PPE, festival-goers bringing their own disposable masks and hand sanitiser, and embracing the NHS Track & Trace initiative.

The document also contains a “mitigation checklist”, as relevant to the current state of the pandemic. This is a list of questions that comprehensively covers the planning and safety of every conceivable area of a festival, including the organisation of the outdoor space, crowd control, and the safety of festival staff.

The guidance is thoughtful with regard to all of this uncertainty; it notes, that the experience of putting on a festival during COVID will be a first for many of them, and also that COVID should not eclipse the rest of their health and safety provision. The COVID-19 Supplementary Guidance maintains a positive tone throughout.

Despite all the uncertainty that the industry currently faces, it concludes with a positive note: “ultimately, the music festival industry is principally defined by planning for and implementing mitigation of risk … Festival organisers are already practically in a very good place to meet the challenges that COVID-19 bring to the festival sector.”

Paul Reed, the CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals, said this about the new guidance:  “Risk mitigation is what festival promoters do for a living, so the intent of this guidance is to outline Covid-19 specific planning considerations that will allow for bespoke risk assessment approaches in liaison with relevant authorities and agencies … I’d like to thank the AIF Ops Group for leading on this important piece of work and also DCMS, PHE officials and the wider festival industry for their invaluable contributions.”

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The live events sector is in crisis. Today, we join with many others to call on the government to provide urgent support to protect an industry which means so much to so many, and provides billions to the economy. #WeMakeEvents (@fineline_lighting)

A post shared by Glastonbury Festival (@glastofest) on Sep 30, 2020 at 4:02am PDT

The document presents comprehensive and reassuring guidance about the state of festivals next year. It is undoubtedly going to be an enormous job for festival organisers, and much remains subject to change. In wake of the new advice, though, festival-goers can finally relax for the time being, and cast their minds longingly to much simpler organisational tasks, like what to wear, and who to see if the line-up clashes.