Ariana Grande’s promoter is facing an estimated payout of £300,000 following the cancellation of several tour dates due to last month’s terrorist attack at Manchester Arena.
Concerts scheduled for May 25 and 26 at London’s O2 Arena were cancelled, as well as the succeeding ones for Belgium, Poland, Germany, and Switzerland. “The show must go on” did not hold true at least in the case of these locations, but thankfully the tour was insured by Lloyd’s of London.
“While financial concerns are always a distant second to human ones, stopping an 80-date tour in its tracks is a costly decision and comes with collateral risk. Cancellation insurance might not cover the loss of revenue, such as ticket-holder refunds, grounded personnel and equipment, and transportation and cargo costs that come with rerouting the massive production,” said a Variety report.
It said delays can result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day and can easily add up to millions in the span of a week. The report quoted lawyer Jill Berliner of Rimon Law as saying, “Even a little disruption, like if one truck gets into an accident, can completely throw you off. But something like [a terror attack], you don’t know what to do next.”
Described as an expert in terrorism-related insurance recovery, Berliner represented the Foo Fighters in their legal battle against Lloyd’s over the same issue. Foo Fighters cancelled shows in Italy and Paris following the Bataclan attack in 2015.
Meanwhile, Take That’s May 25-27 and Kiss’s May 30 concerts at Manchester Arena were also cancelled due to the venue’s temporary closure following the May 22 bombing. Take That’s May 23 concert in Liverpool has also been postponed, and the group is said to be lodging its insurance claim.
While the concert industry is said to be experiencing record profits, Variety noted that costs have snowballed to include “expensive and difficult-to-obtain insurance that, more often than not, becomes a tug-of-war as claims for coverage are made in the months following an attack.”
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