Festival and Covid Policy

[Bumbl]

Hi,

We booked tickets for a festival taking place this weekend in March.

Since then, the usual Covid policies - such as negative test or vaccination etc have been introduced as a condition of entry.

I am wondering if we have any right to a refund, due to the fact that the entry requirements and terms and conditions have changed since we first booked?

When we bought tickets there was no mention of tests or vaccine passes.

Back in March did you assume Covid would have gone by September? Seems pretty obvious to me that extra checks would be needed.

I'm not really asking about what was pretty obvious or not, I'm asking from a legal perspective if it is okay to introduce new conditions of entry which weren't stated at the time of booking.

I imagine it depends on the actual terms and conditions when you originally booked.

I went to the theatre yesterday. When I booked the tickets there was no mention of vaccine passport/negative test. At some point that changed. It didn't occur to me to cancel the tickets, we just took lft tests before we went.

When there is a constantly evolving, ongoing public health crisis, yes, I would say there is a perfectly strong legal basis to require your customers not to be transmitting pathogens.

If you refuse to even provide a negative test, feel free to consult their cancellation policy and request a refund.

Maybe, if there were conditions that were difficult to meet, but unless you have some reason you can't test, really?

We can't go because someone in our group has COVID symptoms so we think it's best to not risk it! But there is nothing in their cancellation policy about getting a refund because one person may have Covid.

So I'm asking if we can get a refund due to the change in terms and conditions.

What do the T’s and C’s of your booking say about cancellation and refund?

On a practical note you may be able to resell the ticket via Ticketmaster or similar if you really don’t want to do a simple test to enable your entry

Cross post.

So YOU could go? This would come under disinclination so no refund. If you can’t bear to go I’d look into resale - you are probably on a hiding to nothing arguing about changes of terms etc

@Bumbl

We can't go because someone in our group has COVID symptoms so we think it's best to not risk it! But there is nothing in their cancellation policy about getting a refund because one person may have Covid.

So I'm asking if we can get a refund due to the change in terms and conditions.

Probably not, but you may well be able to get a refund if that person tests positive.

There's nothing in the Ts and Cs about refunds if you can't go or if you have Covid.

In theory, the person with symptoms could still go, because they have been double vaccinated and would just need to show proof of this. But we think that this is morally wrong as they could still pass it on.

Still, there's no incentive for us NOT to go as we will lose out, either on the festival or not getting a refund.

So this person meets the requirements set by the festival (vaccinated)? In which case, it makes no difference that the entry requirements have now changed, they aren’t the reason for your non-attendance - their feeling unwell is.

I wouldn’t expect there to be any refund due because one person has Covid. In any other year you wouldn’t expect a refund if you had a stomach bug or tonsillitis - you’d either just suck it up and curse the fates; or you’d think “fuck everyone else” and go anyway if you felt up to it.

Except legally even vaccinated people have to isolate with symptoms until negative pcr, and if positive pcr still have to isolate for 10 days. It’s only double vaccinated household members who are exempt.

I’ve been having a similar issue with a festival - we booked the tickets in 2019 for the 2020 festival. Obviously it was cancelled so our tickets were rolled over to this year.

They’ve since published their Covid policy - double vaccinated or negative LFTs before entry. DH, DD1 and I are double vaccinated but DD2 isn’t. She’s 16. She also has Tourette’s, and her tics mean that we can’t get a LFT anywhere near her.

They won’t allow an exemption for her so we asked for a refund - they said no, there are clauses in their Ts and Cs which allow them to change their Ts and Cs so we are not entitled to a refund

We can fudge the test and do it for her, but it defeats the object of the policy.

@Bumbl

There's nothing in the Ts and Cs about refunds if you can't go or if you have Covid.

In theory, the person with symptoms could still go, because they have been double vaccinated and would just need to show proof of this. But we think that this is morally wrong as they could still pass it on.

Still, there's no incentive for us NOT to go as we will lose out, either on the festival or not getting a refund.

Dont people with symptoms still had to isolate until they've had a negative Pcr test? I thought it's just close contacts of positive people who don't have to isolate if they're double jabbed.

Has the symptomatic person taken a test?

They've been testing negative on lateral flows.

We aren't going to go and we will isolate pending any PCR tests etc, but I was just wondering about the legal side of it all. Thank you for the replies anyway.

Lateral flow tests are not useful in symptomatic people!!!

So you really don't want to go even though you could. They are double vaccinated, and have test negative on LFT (which according to the nurse who did my PCR test meant that in all highly likelihood would come back negative, and she was right!), so could still go. Or if wanting to take extra precaution, could stay but everyone else could go.

Why would they possibly feel obligated to refund you?

Lateral flow tests are not useful in symptomatic people!!! The exact opposite to what the people at the test centre told me, which I would expect is more trustworthy then coming from strangers.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/testing/get-tested-for-coronavirus/

“Only for people without symptoms” on NHS website

Plenty of anectodal evidence here about negative LFT followed by positive PCR