The sun is out, and the summer is quickly approaching as the UK starts to heat up for what are becoming much longer summers, and that always means the UK music festival period has arrived. Although social restrictions are starting to ease with hopes of a full relaxation on June 21st,  there’s no guarantee that they’ll relax enough and as such some organisations have taken the preparations much earlier on. Some have been shifted to a digital presence, it has been seen with other big events with the likes of Blizzcon in the gaming space becoming digital, or the move for online services at Wish Casinos to replace land-based options instead, but others have unfortunately had to completely cancel. 

Download Festival – Usually taking place early in June, the 2021 festival was supposed to take place this past weekend but much like 2020 had to be cancelled – some were hoping the date may have been pushed back a little in order to fall under the changes expected for June 21st but with short notice certainly not something possible. The event had included acts like Kiss, Biffy Clyro, and System of a Down, but they’ll all be pushed to the 2022 event instead along with Iron Maiden being added to the bill, granted the 2022 event is able to go ahead of course. 

Glastonbury – The legendary Glastonbury festival takes place a little later in the year, typically targeted towards the end of June or early July, but unfortunately had to be cancelled once again. In a statement, one of the organisers Emily Eavis had said “In spite of our efforts to move heaven and earth, it has become clear that we simply will not be able to make the festival happen this year. WE are so sorry to let you all down” and certainly fans won’t be blaming anyone here. Much like 2020, however, there was the promise of a virtual event which took place on May 22nd with a five-hour live stream that featured Coldplay, Haim, Kano and others too, so at least a little entertainment.

Past virtual events – At the end of May, the Radio 1 Big Weekend did host its second year of virtual events as fans had the opportunity to tune in for around 50 live performances recorded exclusively for Radio 1 – it has raised the question of whether or not more events in the future will look offer a virtual option given the successes seen, but may be something a little more difficult to arrange when things are back to normal and the hope is that exclusivity can be found by having a limited number of tickets once again and bringing the festival scene back to life.