New plans to be announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves will take a “more balanced” approach to granting licences to help big annual gigs get off the ground
Festival organisers will have less paperwork to wade through in order to get big gigs off the ground.
New plans to be announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves will take a “more balanced” approach to granting licences, the government says.
In particular this could help small festival organisers get off the ground – with streamlined licensing deals lasting for multiple years, instead of organisers having to battle through red tape every season.
“The UK’s festival scene is world famous and bring hundreds of thousands of people together every year, but for far too long smaller festivals especially have struggled to get off the ground because of outdated and excessive red tape,” Ms Reeves said.
“As part of our Plan for Change, we’re ripping up these arduous regulations to help festivals go on longer to create even more priceless memories for punters, new jobs, bolster our economy and put more pounds into back pockets of working people.”
It follows a consultation where ministers heard from festival organisers, who said the current regime was “stifling”.
The government is expected to accept most of their key recommendations when it responds to the consultation on Thursday.
Safety and crime prevention will remain high priority considerations, but local authorities will be told to put more weight on the potential growth impact of their licensing decisions.
Pubs and nightclubs will also get a boost from changes to be announced this weekend, with Ms Reeves setting out plans to make it easier to serve people outside for longer and stay open later.