Be informed

Late summer bank holiday weekend, 2024. The Leeds and Reading festivals are scheduled as normal. But normal does not really exist any more. It used to be possible to put on such a festival in August with some confidence that, whilst it may rain, festival goers will at worst be wet. But no longer.

On 23 August 2024, the Leeds part of the festival reported that it had “lost” two stages. The BBC stage and the Chevron stage were withdrawn from the festival programme. The Aux stage was reopened. Wind was a particular problem making camping really challenging (as if camping is not challenging enough already, see above after the storm).

The cause? English weather? Well, weather, probably. In the autumn and winter we had an unprecedented number of so-called named storms – storms that will cause disruption, however defined. This bank holiday weekend “welcomed” (Storm) Lilian to the Leeds festival. Named storms have only been with us since 2015. But I do not recall life-threatening situations at British music festivals in the past from storms (I cannot find evidence – though famously the Woodstock Festival in 1969 offered up a dangerous electrical storm on its third day). The cause, according to the UK Met Office is the behaviour of the Jet Stream – column of fast-moving air that usually sits to the North of the UK in the summer but has shifted frequently in recent years to sit directly above the UK, and particularly the North West of England and Scotland. The consequence is that the particularly moist air above the Atlantic is directed to the UK and is deposited over the country when it meets the land. To make matters worse – and to illustrate the interconnectedness of our weather and climate – unusual weather patterns over North America (sinking cold air) have given additional energy to the Jet Stream.

OK, let us talk about climate change. As expected, there is some reluctance on the part of climate scientist and meteorologists to ascribe causality – a warming planet equals more storms. Named storms are an irrelevance – they are merely a media mechanism to raise awareness that citizens need to be careful in what they do in the face of a named storm. For example, don’t go to outdoor music festivals or hike in the mountains. If you can avoid it. There are data relating to rainfall (certainly increasing) and wind leading to tidal surges and flooding. The UK’s positioning in the north west of Europe leaves the land mass open to exposure to Atlantic weather and the effects of small changes in the positioning of the Jet Stream.

The business implications are immense. Festival organisers (and owners of the brands), now need to consider more carefully how to host such events safely. It is not clear yet, in the Leeds case this year, as to why two stages were withdrawn completely. Were the stages irreparably damaged? Were they merely discovered to be unsafe after the wind (in which case a rethink is needed on stage design)? And what about insurance? What if festivals become uninsurable?