Download Festival to serve as pilot government-backed test event

The once-cancelled 2021 edition of Download Festival is now set to actually take place, albeit in a revised fashion. The Leicestershire, England mainstay typically welcomes 110,000 alt-rock fans into its home at Donington Park, however, the 2021 iteration will serve as government-backed test event, welcoming a reduced 10,000 attendees. A part of Phase II of the English ministry’s Events Research Program, this new “pilot version” of Download will gauge COVID-19 transmissions at a mass music gathering. Thus, on the weekend of June 4, 10,000 attendees will once again be able to experience maskless, non-socially distanced festival fun.

Phase I of the Events Research Program in the UK included a maskless, 5,000 capacity Blossoms concert at Liverpool’s Sefton Park. Previous ERP events have found that 15 out of a possible 58,000 people would contract the virus due to attending a mass gathering. ERP research further suggests that mass gatherings are about as COVID-safe as going shopping or eating at a restaurant. Therefore, as the UK aims to reopen, the government has decided to double the sample size at the reconfirmed Download Festival. View the lineup below.

Featured image: David Dillon

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