After the announcement that live music could return this year if delivered outside, a lot of fans and musicians understandably got excited. Drive-in gigs were booked across the country with many bands and singers joining in, and all seemed well.
Now, however, with the prospect of localised lockdowns across the UK, many drive-in gigs have been cancelled. Most significant is LiveNation’s ‘Live From the Drive-In Series’, which was offering performances throughout the summer with headline artists like Kaiser Chiefs, The Streets, and Tony Hadley.
LiveNation has released a statement saying that “The Live From The Drive In concert series will no longer proceed as planned this summer”. They emphasise that they had support from the artists, live music production contractors, their sponsor Utilita and live music fans, but the decision was made because of localised lockdowns which mean “it has become impossible for us to continue with the series with any confidence”.
It’s hard to predict what will come of this news, but it’s likely that smaller planned drive-in gigs outside of LiveNation’s plan will follow suit.
