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Original poster

Festivals, are entry requirements hogwash?

84 replies

Dollyparton3 · 22/08/2021 17:23

We have a teenager in the house who is off to Reading next weekend and his mates are dropping like flies with COVID at the moment.

The Organisers have been very proactive in saying you must provide proof of a lateral flow test on the day of the event or be double jabbed in order to gain entry. Sounds sensible.

However aforementioned teen says that other recent festivals have been a COVID mosh pit due to the lateral flow proof being a case of you going into the NHS app and "self reporting" that your test result is negative. So if you're so inclined and had COVID, you'd report it as negative just so you don't have FOMO all weekend.

Concerned as one of his mates has COVID at the moment which means he should be isolating past the event but apparently he thinks he'll be fine by then so will just report that he's clear. Surely loads of people will do the same.

The organisers insist on a test 72 hours after entering the festival but this bit seems so wooly to me unless I'm missing something?

OP posts:
Original poster
Dollyparton3 · 22/08/2021 20:04

@Cookerhood

Why would a teenager who is desperate to go to their first festival genuinely do an LFT when they can just put in the app that it's negative? I know it's selfish, but generally the young are. The only way of doing it properly is to have someone else do it on them.
This exactly!! I reckon anyone who is now in this position will just blag it because FOMO wins the day. At least once they've all had it we're done with that demographic but I hope anyone who's vulnerable or older will swerve it for all the right reasons
OP posts:
JoeMaplin · 22/08/2021 20:07

If the LFTs aren't showing they are positive, not sure what they can do.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 22/08/2021 20:28

I reckon anyone who is now in this position will just blag it because FOMO wins the day

Wasn’t that part of the problem during board masters? The entry one was mostly fine, although clearly there were some false negatives and possibly a few not very honest results. But the Friday one flagged up a load of positives, which led to people not testing and just entering a negative result because they wanted to stay. So by the time everyone got home on Sun/Mon most of them seem to have got covid.

SilverGlitterBaubles · 22/08/2021 20:42

The assumption is that LFTs provide certainty that someone is Covid free but this is not always the case. While they have their place they do tend to give a false sense of security which tends to mean that people let their guard down.

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 22/08/2021 20:45

DS' friend also came home from Boardmasters with Covid - hopefully they found out before returning to work!
I live in a town where a festival is held - no one seems worried at all.

Badgerstmary · 22/08/2021 23:33

My dn also went to Boardmasters, caught covid, passed it onto his dad who now is feeling very rough, & his partners has just broken her leg. Unfortunately herd immunity can be extremely difficult/dangerous.

Madhairday · 23/08/2021 08:53

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

Did anyone go to Board Masters and not get Covid?
The one teen I know who went came back with covid and is actually very poorly (fit as a fiddle usually). Struggling to breathe etc.
Lemons1571 · 23/08/2021 09:16

I think it’s all just virtue signalling, pretending these events are covid safe to encourage people to go and spend money. So the government can justify furlough ending. Plus increase herd immunity to boot.

We went to a day festival last week. We were asked to show our double vaccinated nhs covid passes on our phones, but no more. They didnt check the names on the covid passes against the tickets/other ID, so we could easily have screen shotted someone else’s covid pass and they wouldn’t have checked.

BarbaraofSeville · 23/08/2021 09:35

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

I think that’s going to be the lesson we learn. That people can’t be trusted to do LFTs and they’ll need to be supervised.
Realistically, doing supervised tests for festivals will add too much expense and time to get in, people would probably have to queue for hours.

But I agree that unsupervised tests won't be worth anything if someone wants to game the system. DP works on festivals etc and has had to submit proof of covid tests on a few occasions. As in a photo of a negative test card. That in no way proves it was done on the day he says it was or was actually of him.

But there's been a lot of pressure from the industry to get going again ASAP, especially from Melvin Benn, owner of Festival Republic, who run some of the largest festivals, like Reading, Leeds, Latitude etc.

ShuddaBeenMe · 23/08/2021 09:39

I heard a group saying they were using tap water for their LFTs as they didn't want to miss out.

No wonder it spread all over Newquay.

middleager · 23/08/2021 09:46

I've been to one festival where no proof was needed and I have a couple more coming where you can show your vaccination passport, negative LFT or exemption.

Anybody can say they are exempt though can't they?
LFTs can be faked and proof of vaccination doesn't mean you are immune. As a result, no festival or event with entry requirements is fool proof.

CBUK22 · 23/08/2021 10:04

Transmission of COVID outdoors is pretty limited due to dilution.

I wouldn't be hugely concerned about contracting it at a festival.

ineedaholidaynow · 23/08/2021 10:27

@CBUK22 many people have contracted it at Boardmasters

CBUK22 · 23/08/2021 10:31

@ineedaholidaynow - AT board masters or on public transport to/from and in confined spaces?

halcyondays · 23/08/2021 10:35

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

I think that’s going to be the lesson we learn. That people can’t be trusted to do LFTs and they’ll need to be supervised.
We, and the Government, have known since early on in the pandemic that many people can’t be trusted to quarantine, do tests etc without supervision. They just don’t care.
halcyondays · 23/08/2021 10:37

@CBUK22

Transmission of COVID outdoors is pretty limited due to dilution.

I wouldn't be hugely concerned about contracting it at a festival.

Outdoors with a bit of spacing, yes. Thousands of people crammed in very closely, singing and shouting is a pretty effective way to spread Covid.
Branleuse · 23/08/2021 10:41

i think it is probably more of a risk for certain festivals over others. I did latitude with the same rules and I did hear of the odd person that came back with covid but no significant spike.
I think that teens who arent vaccinated yet are going to catch it at some point anyway. That much is clear, and if the most vulnerable are now double vaccinated and masked up, then let the kids get back to normal and decide their own risks, as at least theyll be mostly done with it before uni starts

Frazzledazzles · 23/08/2021 10:41

@CBUK22 - At Boardmasters. We live locally and every teen I know or know of who went there has now got COVID.

None of them camped. Most of them walked there and back , and the ones who got lifts were maybe 2/Max 3 in car with a parent giving a lift… all separate groups I know of who wouldn’t have spent time together at the actual festival, but where everyone in the group who went together has now got it. I can’t figure it out either as I believed that it was hard to catch in the open air.

I have heard that the toilet facilities were really appalling (even by festival standards!) and not being cleaned due to cleaning staff not turning up… but not sure how much practical difference that would have made

Frazzledazzles · 23/08/2021 10:43

(Everyone in the groups who went has now got it, that should say! As in, the groups were separate and didn’t socialise or travel there together but each group still tested positive a few days later)

Ontopofthesunset · 23/08/2021 10:46

My son and two of his friends didn't get it at Boardmasters, despite sharing a tent and car with another friend who did - but they have all had both their vaccinations. I know a couple of teens who got it at Latitude too but didn't pass it onto their vaccinated parents.

NeverTalkToStrangers · 23/08/2021 10:46

Transmission outside is normally very low, but not in a mosh pit. There’s a limit that can be achieved with a light breeze for ventilation if you’re shoulder to shoulder with a few thousand screaming fans for an hour.

sashagabadon · 23/08/2021 10:49

There's no way on gods green earth Reading will be covid safe - it's full of 16 year olds for a start.
My daughter is going and I'm fairly sure she will catch it there but her father and I are double jabbed and her dad caught the wembley football variant so we have (almost) herd immunity in our house so i am not worried.
I was at a festival yesterday but it was full of oldies (average age 50 I reckon) and so I doubt it will be a major covid spreading event but Reading is a teen event and so the risk is different.

Dogoodfeelgood · 23/08/2021 10:59

I went by to a festival and my covid status wasn’t even checked so yes I think its all a bit wooly but what else can they really do? I guess insist on PCRs but that’s a big added expense for young people and they can be faked as well. I think at the end of the day, we all need to be responsible and look out for each other, and also accept that going to events like this is actually a risk so you have to weigh that up in your decision to attend - there will always be people with covid there, even if it’s just people who caught it after a negative test, or who have such a low viral load that LF didn’t pick it up. It’s individual responsibility and decision to go at the end of the day.

BarefootHippieChick · 23/08/2021 11:03

I have a few friends who went to Bloodstock recently, apparently the entry requirements were pretty strict but people have since come home and tested positive so now festival organisers have advised everyone who attended to get tested

CBUK22 · 23/08/2021 11:06

@Frazzledazzles - it's hard to see how you can claim that its down to a festival when we've had record numbers of tourists in the area on holiday, G7 summit, lots of kids attending school until shortly before etc etc.

The figures I've seen are between 50 and 1000 people possibly infected out of 50'000 attendees.

I personally think we're robbed young people of enough of their lives already and need to get back to normality for them ASAP.