Opinion: Story of pandemic winners and losers still being written

The domino effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has created many winners and losers, as businesses have battled the myriad impacts of the virus alongside other emerging risks, such as Brexit and fluctuating weather events arising from the climate crisis.

Heading into summer, however, it is clear that the live event and festival sector is particularly feeling the pinch – many organisers have had to scrap their summer schedule as they have been unable to obtain event cancellation insurance in line with event lead times that includes Covid cover from the commercial insurance market, due to the potential scale of the risk. Understandably, the market has been scarred from its recent experiences with business interruption insurance.

Unfortunately, the government has also been unable to help so far, despite reports from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee in May and the Public Accounts Committee in June, which both flagged the “survival threat” to Britain’s summer festivals “without a government-backed insurance indemnity package against the risk of cancellation”.

With summer now on the UK’s doorstep and a government-supported insurance scheme for live events still not confirmed at time of writing, festivals are facing their second year without their big ticket, main money-making events. Whether these events will have the heart – or the finances – to try again next summer remains to be seen.

In terms of success stories, however, insurtechs have been able to take advantage of the Covid-driven necessity for digital solutions and have fully showcased the value of their wares – our cover story this month more fully explores this trend, the subsequent funding boom and unicorn creation.

These opposing ends of the see-saw show the pandemic’s insurance story is far from finished yet.