This year, the nightmare for music festival organizers returned in the form of more lockdowns and the cancellation of even more events as new variants spread.
After two years of hardship, organizers of the events are now trying to devote their energy and money to prepare for the new, hopefully, regular season of 2022.
Preparation comes as it was recently revealed the losses of some larger festivals went up to millions of crowns.
One of the biggest music festivals, Colors of Ostrava, had to cancel this year.
Jiří Sedlák, the spokesman for the show held in Dolní Vítkovice in Ostrava, explained how organizations had no other option but to put a stop to the festival for yet another year due to the new Covid variants.
“Last year, the organizers of Colors calculated a loss of more than 12 million crowns,” he said, speaking of the devastating effect.
He has since tried to make money by organizing smaller and permitted events, either live or online.
“We were able to survive only thanks to supporting from many sources – the fans kept last year’s tickets for this year, and thus helped us with sustainable cash flow. Further help came from our partners and sponsors, “added Sedlák.
The lockdown has also had an economic impact on many other music festivals.
Although this year’s Metronome Prague Festival still went on, it was forced to take place in a much smaller, more intimate form.
Organizers were still grateful it could go on despite the circumstances, considering it a “miracle.”
They remain in high hopes for next year.
“We have to reckon with the transfer option, but we do not believe that there will be a reduction in cultural events again,” said the festival head David Gaydečka.
“We are watching what is happening in Britain, where events with a capacity of, for example, one hundred thousand spectators are already taking place de facto without measures.”
The organizers of JazzFest Brno were also forced to move from this spring to the autumn, but they hope to offer twenty concerts by the end of the year.
They are already preparing for the regular spring term next year with live audiences in halls.
“We believe that the year 2022 will take place as standard,” said the artistic director of JazzFest Brno, Vilém Spilka.
“At the same time, we leave the door open for various alternative ways to get music to fans, whether it’s recording TV concerts or releasing records on our new festival label Bivak Records.”
The organizers of the Rock for People from Hradec Králové, Ameba Production, also intend to rely not only on the festival after the economic stress from Covid.
The company is now investing tens of millions of crowns into the local Festival Park at the city airport, which has been operating Ameba since January.
The area of about 40 hectares, in which Rock for People takes place, should serve throughout the year and offer other music, theatre and film festivals.
