Latitude Festival sparks Covid cases among attendees week after event

Positive tests are starting to come back from Latitude festival (Picture: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

Up to 20 punters who attended Latitude Festival earlier this month have tested positive for Covid.

The four-day festival was given the green light to go ahead and took place between July 22-25, becoming one of the first major music events following the lifting of lockdown restrictions in England.

While festival-goers were required to present proof of a negative Covid test or show they’ve been double-jabbed, the Suffolk County Council’s director of public health, Stuart Keeble, said local data has picked up ’14 or 20′ positive cases so far.

Latitude had a full daily capacity at Henham Park of 40,000, made up of campers and day-ticket holders, as part of the Government’s Events Research Programme (ERP), with artists including Wolf Alice, Bombay Bicycle Club, Bastille and The Chemical Brothers taking to the stage.

Addressing post-event testing, Keeble said, according to BBC: ‘From our local data, we are picking up 14 or 20 cases but obviously these people who have gone to Latitude will be all over the country and that’s part of the event research programme to try to piece together the impact of it.’

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport also told the website it was too early for results from the festival to be fully collated and would go into the next phased report of the ERP.

The event was held at full capacity (Picture: PA)

One Latitude attendee said, as per East Anglian Times, they knew fellow festival-goers who had tested positive since Sunday.

She said: ‘It was easy to think Covid no longer existed once you were in that bubble.

‘I felt safe because I knew people needed lateral flow tests and two shots of the jab, but upon entry the organisers really weren’t that strict about it.

‘Everything was completely back to normal, like a pre-pandemic festival would be. It’s the most fun I’ve had in over a year.’

More: Coronavirus

The Euro 2020 semi-final and final at Wembley as well as the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit also formed part of the government’s programme.

In June a total of 1,991 Covid-19 cases in Scotland have been linked to fans watching Euro 2020 football matches, while Piers Morgan revealed he tested positive after attending football matches.

Metro.co.uk contacted reps of Latitude festival and Suffolk County Council for comment.

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