Boardmasters Festival - superspreader event!

[ineedaholidaynow]

Did anyone go to this festival and not come down with COVID! Every local youngster who went to it seems to have contracted COVID, and I see it keeps getting mentioned on MN, and all posters can't be referring to the same youngsters.

Have other festivals been the same?

No can do attitude, that’s abundantly clear....

Apologies @cantkeepawayforever problems with refresh due to terrible Internet connection.

steppemum

In a way, your post proves my point because you've listed all the things your DS has had to do - if you like, a series of conditions that had to be fulfilled - in order to go to an expensive festival.

Not everyone from a working class household is going to be able to fulfil those -

Suppose your DS had lost his job due to Covid (as many people did, including my husband)?

Suppose he'd worked, not in a place where it was possible to negotiate time off with a boss you'd built up respect for, but in a call-centre, for example, where it's a computer saying 'yes' or 'no' to the holiday requests?

Suppose his car had broken down irreparably a week before the festival - again, common with the older cars young people are likely to afford?

As I said upthread, I am not saying working class people never go to festivals. I'm saying that the statement 'festivals are core to the mental health of younger people' is a statement that comes from a privileged middle-class perspective where it's a given that all young people can afford to go to them, as long as they're put on.

Yes, but if they are older that 18 and 3 months in September they still have to isolate as 18+ year olds who are not double vaccinated if they are close contacts with a positive case

I can't imagine that rule being followed even by an otherwise conscientious fresher. Especially as it doesn't really make any sense if you've had Covid in the past fortnight.

@SquirryTheSquirrel

steppemum

In a way, your post proves my point because you've listed all the things your DS has had to do - if you like, a series of conditions that had to be fulfilled - in order to go to an expensive festival.

Not everyone from a working class household is going to be able to fulfil those -

Suppose your DS had lost his job due to Covid (as many people did, including my husband)?

Suppose he'd worked, not in a place where it was possible to negotiate time off with a boss you'd built up respect for, but in a call-centre, for example, where it's a computer saying 'yes' or 'no' to the holiday requests?

Suppose his car had broken down irreparably a week before the festival - again, common with the older cars young people are likely to afford?

As I said upthread, I am not saying working class people never go to festivals. I'm saying that the statement 'festivals are core to the mental health of younger people' is a statement that comes from a privileged middle-class perspective where it's a given that all young people can afford to go to them, as long as they're put on.

Oh fgs, honestly! I'm sure he meant for a huge amount of young people rather than every single young person. Why does everything in Mumsnet have to come down to perceived "class". Some posters are like a dog with a bone.

@MissyB1

Well that festival has caused bloody havoc in our local hospital- and means my dh’s long awaited bank holiday weekend off now won’t happen

For those saying “what’s the problem?” I will tell you the problem. Lots of dh’s colleagues teen kids went to that festival, they are all Doctors or nurses kids. Every bloody one of them came back with Covid! The isolation rule still applies to NHS staff. So guess who works yet another 12 day stretch?

I accept It's all a bit shit, but probably better that the children of doctors and nurses got Covid now than over the winter when healthcare is generally more stretched for other reasons such as the flu.

[quote IndigoC]@AlecTrevelyan006

Learning to live with Covid doesn’t have to mean letting it rip unmitigated. There is a middle way in which we can have 80% of our pre-covid lives back AND protect the vulnerable by keeping mask mandates, not holding mass superspreader events like this one etc. This would not be forever, just a few years. It’s what most other countries are planning.[/quote]
Why would things be different in a few years? By banning festivals and gatherings, all we would be doing is reducing cases somewhat. In itself it's not going to have stop Covid spread through the 1,000s upon 1,000s of smaller gatherings that take place daily.

Unrestricted Covid spread over the summer is actually a good thing in my opinion, as it hastens the day when there's enough immunity in the population for R to drop below 1 with normal pre-2020 behaviour, and numbers to drop naturally to residual levels over time.

The fact that R is between 0.9 and 1.2 given that society is largely open now, and given that Delta's R in a pristine population is around 5, it indicates we're not far from that point. Schools return will likely boost infections again, but it will die back... the more we let it take its course naturally, the quicker that will happen.

Additional restrictions at this stage only prolongs the date we reach that point... It won't ultimately change the number of people who become infected, or reduce the overall risk to someone who's CEV... it just spreads that risk over a longer period of time.

Stupid, selfish attitude to say posters are being over dramatic.

An explosion of cases like this has a knock on effect for other health services and people end up suffering one way or another.

@Willyoujustbequiet

Stupid, selfish attitude to say posters are being over dramatic.

An explosion of cases like this has a knock on effect for other health services and people end up suffering one way or another.

Yep this.

Its all very well saying better now than in the Winter flu season err... actually hospitals are experiencing that season right now and have been all summer. All hospitals are in a crazy situation, they can't afford to lose anymore staff to isolation.

I think the only place that might be a revelation is Cornwall @Willyoujustbequiet. I think you'll find that huge areas of the country have been experiencing this for 18 months now.

@Porcupineintherough

I think the only place that might be a revelation is Cornwall *@Willyoujustbequiet*. I think you'll find that huge areas of the country have been experiencing this for 18 months now.

Well yes, the SW in general has been very much protected so far. It's interesting to see the psychology actually. I live in the SW and people were very smug about not having many cases compared to London and the North.

I live in the SW and I have never been smug about other areas suffering worse than us.

I live in the SW and have never felt smug either. My DD worked throughout lockdown to fund Boardmasters as did her friends - she's not 'smug' or 'middle class' either. Two of her friends got covid/fully jabbed and now recovered. The hospital is busy but not overwhelmed. Leeds and Reading this week, maybe time to move on to complain about something other than boardmasters.

@MissyB1

Well that festival has caused bloody havoc in our local hospital- and means my dh’s long awaited bank holiday weekend off now won’t happen

For those saying “what’s the problem?” I will tell you the problem. Lots of dh’s colleagues teen kids went to that festival, they are all Doctors or nurses kids. Every bloody one of them came back with Covid! The isolation rule still applies to NHS staff. So guess who works yet another 12 day stretch?

Those people who went have done nothing wrong. It was all within the rules. They broke no rules to go.

Yes, it's annoying for you that your partner is now having to cover for staff as his employer has said household contacts have to isolate. I understand that.

However it's not the festival goers fault. They didn't break any rules.

@Neolara

We went to Latitude. There were a lot of people, who were sometimes squashed together more closely than I was comfortable with. Two of my three DCs came down with high temperatures 2 days afterwards and but we all tested negative on pcrs. I know lots of people who went to Latitude and the only one who got covid caught it from a family member who was unknowingly infections before they entered the festival site. I googled yesterday and it seems like they estimate about 1000 of the 40,000 people who attended got covid (2.5%) compared to 1.4% of people in the population who have it. There was lots of close contact with people despite it being outside. I guess the main differences to the Broadcasters event was that Latitude probably had a much older demographic so more people vaccinated and more people arriving in their own cars instead of public transport. I also knew of people who did not go because they were self-isolating.

I went to Latitude too. As it was a test event I was expecting some results to be released but maybe it’s too early? Despite being a culture shock after the last 18 months, I didn’t feel unsafe, but then just about everything was outside or open to the air and I stayed a bit further back in the arenas than I would have normally, so wasn’t ever crushed together with anyone. Toilets were pretty good. As you say though, the demographic is completely different to Boardmasters and I imagine the experiences of me and my mates in campervans and a bunch of 18 year olds in tents will have been completely different.

I assume if some faked their LFT results to get in they broke the rules

I did find the entry requirements at Latitude a bit baffling - only needed proof of a negative test if you hadn’t been double vaccinated, which is completely illogical. We did do LFTs anyway despite them not being required and wouldn’t have gone if we had tested positive.

@toomuchlaundry

I live in the SW and I have never been smug about other areas suffering worse than us.

Well good for you. I heard plenty of people talking about how our compliance was better. To be fair I think people did realise it was only a matter of time

I think Latitude results are out today.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-58323500.amp

@Notonthestairs

I think Latitude results are out today.

news.sky.com/uk

Apparently Latitude linked to a 1000 cases.

I think those figures look manageable.

Well yes but we don't actually know they did.
Let's face it, LFTs aren't exactly that reliable.
They could quite easily have not lied and still caught it.

I know that DD's friend didn't lie.
He still came back with Covid. He didn't test positive until three days after - he did daily LfT on return (parents asked him to) and all were negative until the Thursday. He returned on the Monday.

Dd and her other friend didn't lie. They didn't come back with Covid. Infact dd didn't even have to take a test as she is fully vaccinated so already has a Covid pass without but she did anyway to be more cautious. Also to help with this her and her friends didn't go out and no noses their socialising with people for 19 days before the festival.

She and friends will do the same for Leeds. She's minimised contact since returning from boardmasters and will take tests. She's also done PCR and LFTs this past week / all negative.

Not all teenagers are lying their way through this.

Tramlines festival was officially a test event.

I've not actually seen any official data on their numbers.

Anecdotal info I heard from friends of friends is that there were huge numbers of unvaccinated under 18s testing positive.

I don't understand the maths.

5,000 out of 50,000 people have covid. 50,000 people who had to 'prove' they were negative beforehand. How does that fit with an R of 0.9-1.2?

Or is the testing or vaccine pass that ineffective that massive numbers were actually carrying the virus when they arrived?