Festivals, are entry requirements hogwash?

[Dollyparton3]

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?

It was thought and it is still stated that outdoors is low risk and compared to indoors it is much lower risk. There are cases reported from Australia and New Zealand of people infected by fleeting contact in shopping centre playgrounds etc so maybe that has changed

In any event, the plan is to have more infections in the summer/ festival period/ whilst schools are off to relieve pressure on the NHS in flu season. Controlling of the virus or preventing infections is not really a thing anymore is it?

When talking about outdoors being low risk, that was generally meant walking around in a park or queuing outside the supermarket, not tens of thousands of people jumping and sweating all over each other in a mosh pit. Plus sharing showers and toilets that aren't cleaned regularly. Also people travel there together on public transport a lot of the time.

The Boardmasters experience does sound worrying, especially when people start to go back to school over the next week or two.

[quote Frazzledazzles]@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[/quote]
I think that the U.K. position is largely that there is no evidence of outdoor transmission. Which is not quite the same thing. It’s less likely but not impossible.

I suspect that it may be more likely with delta but I’ve also read that there may be issues with fleeting contact at ‘pinch points’ in otherwise outdoor venues. But large numbers of unvaccinated teens screaming and shouting in close proximity was always going to end up like this.

I’ve heard the loos at beautiful days this weekend were horrendous and not cleaned by the cleaning teams,but hadn’t realised the same was true of Board Masters.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

Did anyone go to Board Masters and not get Covid?

Doesn't look like it.

My ds went to Braodmasters and came back with Covid along with several friends. He’s recovered v quickly (had one jab) but worried about the rest of the family catching it 😕.
From what I’ve heard the transmission there is massive!

.. .. this was same as at Wembley Euro football and Silverstone .

My DH and DS's went to both, no checking of testing at any of those events, no follow up checks despite being test events and DH caught covid.

There were 50K at boardmasters how many were in Football stadiums this weekend and how many cases as a result of that? Who is checking ?

I know several who went to Tramlines said it wasn't strict and self declared negatives went on.
It was supposed to be part of the pilot too.

On a festival related note has anyone seen this?
www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/p9a7ok/kevin_and_perry_spotted_at_hardwick_live_festival/
I've watched it many times and I'm still seeing the real thing!

@ShuddaBeenMe

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.

That would come through as void, not negative, generally.

Why would they even bother anyway? No one checks them doing it. It would be far easier to just scan the LFT and click negative without even doing the test, than faffing about falsifying it in the first place.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay

Did anyone go to Board Masters and not get Covid?

My 19y DD didn't - double vax, no health issues. Her 19y female friend didn't - single vax, has health issues but wasn't classed as CV iirr.

Her 19y make friend did catch it - single vax, no health conditions. He has symptoms similar to a heavy cold, high temperature, cough, feeling a bit rough.

@TheQueef

I know several who went to Tramlines said it wasn't strict and self declared negatives went on. It was supposed to be part of the pilot too.

On a festival related note has anyone seen this?
www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/p9a7ok/kevin_and_perry_spotted_at_hardwick_live_festival/
I've watched it many times and I'm still seeing the real thing!

The friends of friends I know who went to Tramlines all said that their covid passes were never checked.

At least at Boardmasters there appears to have been some semblance of checking - dd and her friends has wristbands after their's were checked on entry and on the Friday.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-58257323

Newquay had the highest rates in Cornwall but the data did NOT include the Boardmasters dates. They already had high rates before the festival.

Hi just got back from Beautiful Days and the toilets arrived from Boardmasters still full, not cleaned, no loo roll, no hand sanitiser. I was so angry as that's not sticking to being covid compliant at all. We have washed our hands with soap after every toilet trip. We wore masks in heavy traffic and in the stalls. We have tested today. Its clear. I will test everyday leading up to Reading Festival on Thursday and that's all we can do.

Every teen I know who was at Boardmasters came back positive. Reading will be the same, and just before they all go back to school and college . The LFT system is pointless, totally open to false declarations and inaccurate anyway

Me too @Loverofbooks23 wasn’t it utterly hideous???
I am really fearful tbh. I didn’t go inside any of the tents wnd kept my distance as much as I could when outside but the loo situation was an abomination. I can’t believe how bad it was. And every other year they’re immmaculate and being constantly cleaned. I’m beyond furious about it especially given it can be spread through faeces. My teenagers who I left at home with their dad are worried sick I’ll have caught it end brought it home. There’s only so much you can help yourself in that kind of situation.

I thought you could only enter PCR result in NHS app, for LFT I was under the impression you had to show an email confirming the negative result (though people could still register a negative result to get the email)

Would make more sense to have people turning up in timeslots and making them do LFT on arrival and show the actual test kit as proof

LFTs are entered on the NHS website too, otherwise how would you get an email confirming it?

LFTs could be taken by anybody. My kids could do the test for me then I could upload the information.
We have to accept that going to events carries risk, but then we carry that risk into the community..

What I'm reading about toilet facilities is not on though.

As mentioned, I have a couple of festivals still to go. One is all day/night inside though, which is more of a concern.

I've also been to a few gigs where no 'evidence' is needed and it's pretty much shoulder to shoulder.

I love live music and have missed it so much. With Covid I figure it's when, not if, and the price is worth it for me, but I appreciate not everyone can take that risk.

@Abraxan

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-58257323

Newquay had the highest rates in Cornwall but the data did NOT include the Boardmasters dates. They already had high rates before the festival.

It's the big jump in cases after Board Masters that gave the clue that Board Masters had caused an issue though. It was high but relatively stable until that point.

This is the new cases by specimen date for Cornwall. It's reasonably clear that something happened in the 5-7days up to the 16th to cause a massive spike.
6th - 306
7th - 250
8th - 272
9th - 364
10th - 332
11th - 357
12th - 326
13th - 309
14th - 263
15th - 281
16th - 631
17th - 881
18th - 962

Cornwall Council and PHE held a press briefing today. Apparently there are 4,700 confirmed cases who said they were at Boardmasters.

Upto 5000 now so waeemt very covid secure.
Something failed.
Maybe testing
Maybe just was filthy and no social distancing.

www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2021-08-23/almost-5000-covid-cases-linked-to-boardmasters-festival

How many people attended the Boardmasters festival?

4700 cases out of how many? That seems a really rather large number...

Should have googled: 50,000.

Erm, 1 in 10 is quite

@Eve

.. .. this was same as at Wembley Euro football and Silverstone .

My DH and DS's went to both, no checking of testing at any of those events, no follow up checks despite being test events and DH caught covid.

There were 50K at boardmasters how many were in Football stadiums this weekend and how many cases as a result of that? Who is checking ?

Funny how two people at the same event can have different experiences. Reading this thread I was thinking how much better Silverstone was than these sounded!

We had our COVID vaccination pass (double jabbed) checked when we first entered the campsite, and then every day when we entered the track. We were told in advance that you needed photo ID to show it was your name on the COVID certificate. At first I thought they weren’t checking the ID, but then on the 2nd day we were asked for ours and told they were doing it as spot checks.

To be fair, not only are the demographics for Silverstone and the festivals, but in my experience the Silverstone toilets were kept really clean.

@lannistunut

Should have googled: 50,000.

Erm, 1 in 10 is quite

I think I've seen 75,000 quoted somewhere too.

So about 7-10% minimum. More if not everybody who caught covid there mentioned they had been to public health/T&T.

I'm off to a local festival evening this week and I have the NHS pass which shows my two jabs, a couple of PCR tests I've had over the months (one set of symptoms turned out to be post jab) and all the LFT I've taken for the DCs schools (both primary).
But basically you can falsify LFT unless supervised so it's only really useful for those lying about having no positive PCRs or having had jabs. And it would rely on checking the ticket and app name.

(Ours is not a camping festival and I can walk to it so I could probably manage not to go to the loo! The festival field is used for another outdoor performance every year which we've been too but I think we were a bit too closely packed for that TBH though the festival will have just one stage this year and it's the smaller stage areas that were too packed).