Coronavirus Support For Our Customers

Amending your booking

We're here to make it as pain free as possible

Although under entertainment booking contracts there is usually no automatic right to transfer a booking to another date if a force majeure event causes a booking to be cancelled, Alive Network has introduced a temporary goodwill policy to allow customers whose events can't happen due to Covid restrictions, to have their booking deposits credited to their account so that they can be used against the deposit due on re-arranged bookings or new bookings.

If you need to make changes to your original booking due to Covid, you will receive 100% of your deposit as credit to use towards any future booking deposits for events before 2024.

The following conditions apply:

• Deposit credit is offered on a goodwill basis

• Credit can be used towards the deposit due on new bookings where the new event date is before Jan 2024.

• For private events, deposit credit can be used to cover up to 100% of the new deposit due, so long as the new event date is not a Saturday. A small admin fee may be charged as a contribution towards our costs in moving your booking.

• For private events, rebookings that are made to a Saturday, then deposit credit can be used to cover up to 50% of each new deposit due, no admin fee would be charged, and any remaining deposit credit would be available on your account to be used towards additional bookings in the same way.

• For corporate event rebookings which aren't on a Saturday, deposit credit can be used to cover at least 50% of each new deposit due, and up to 100% (at our discretion) if the same artist is rebooked at the same fee, in the same location, based on the same event brief.

• For corporate event rebookings which are made to a Saturday, deposit credit can be used to cover up to 50% of each new deposit due, with any remaining deposit credit available to be used towards additional bookings in the same way.

Please note: Where a booking has been moved, postponed or cancelled for a non-force majeure reason, then an artist may be entitled to seek fees to cover any loss of income (see the Force Majeure and Artist Cancellation sections below), and we reserve the right to refuse deposit credit.

Making an amendment
Your Entertainment Coordinator will be on hand to make things easy for you and your artist. You can quickly request changes to your Alive booking by contacting your Entertainment Coordinator directly. You can also give us a call on 01782 740839.

Am I covered by force majeure?

Guidance to help you understand your options

Force majeure is a clause in your contract. It can help protect you and your artist when an extraordinary event or a circumstance beyond your control prevents either you or your artist from fulfilling contractual obligations.

Where official Covid restrictions are changing over time, judging whether force majeure will apply to a booking change can be a tough call. In providing the guidance here, we’ve used our best guess based on our experience. Where you’re in any doubt, we will be happy to chat through your individual situation and offer further advice.

Your booking changes will probably be covered by force majeure if:

• Social distancing laws prevent your event from taking place
• Social distancing laws prevent your artist from delivering their service/performance
• Severe restrictions on guest numbers mean you cannot reasonably facilitate your artist
  Eg. you have been forced to reduce guests numbers from 100 to 30
• Severe restrictions on guest numbers make it unrealistic to proceed with your event
• Your venue/third party organiser is closed/has cancelled your event
• You or your partner are ill with Coronavirus, or need to self isolate, on your event date
  
  

You are less likely to be covered by force majeure if:

• It’s not yet clear that social distancing laws are likely to affect your event
• Restrictions on guest numbers have a limited effect on your event
  eg. guests numbers have been reduced from 120 to 100
• Your personal circumstances have changed since you made your booking
• You have vulnerable or overseas guests who might not be able to attend

Artist cancellation fees

Your artist may be entitled to fees for non-force majeure changes

Where a booking has been moved, postponed or cancelled for a non-force majeure reason, an artist may be entitled to seek fees to cover any loss of income. As it stands, the most likely way to fall foul of this is by asking to cancel or re-arrange a date that the government hasn't put restrictions on yet.

Artist cancellation fees are not a penalty, and can only be charged where an artist has lost out on earnings. If your artist can replace your cancelled booking with another of the same value on the same date, no fees would be expected as no earnings would be lost.

As the application of force majeure on future dates is so uncertain right now, artists are working with clients to avoid charging cancellation fees wherever possible. No artist wants to charge cancellation fees, and that is especially true in the current crisis. It’s likely that your artist is a small business, facing real hardship during the pandemic. Most are doing everything they can to accommodate changes, but with government support now suspended, they need to be able to cover loss of income on cancelled events.

Cancelling Your Booking

Advice if your booking has been prevented by Covid and you cannot reschedule

If you can move or postpone your booking, this is usually a better option than cancelling completely, with the least disruption to your plans. But if you're not able to reschedule your event right now, we will credit to your account 100% of the deposit you have paid, which you can use towards any new booking deposit made before 2024, as per the guidelines at the top of the page.

My artist isn't available for my new date

We’ll help with replacements and artist swaps

If you’ve already moved your event to a new date but your artist is unavailable, we will help you find a replacement. Our talent pool is one of the biggest and best in the business and we’ll be happy to help you find another fantastic artist that’s right for you.

Artists typically wouldn’t seek any cancellation fees if you are rescheduling for a force majeure reason, even if they are unavailable for the new date.

For all other scenarios, an artist swap might be possible. This is where Artist A and Artist B may both have cancellations and are not available for their clients’ alternative dates but they are available for each other’s proposed date. By mutual agreement, clients can effectively swap their artist with the available artist and avoid paying the artist any fees for loss of income. Your Entertainment Coordinator will be happy to chat through your options - please give us a call on 01782 740839.

Reserving an artist for a potential date

Your backup plan should your original event fall through

Some of our most popular artists already have packed diaries for 2022 and in some cases 2023. If you have booked a popular artist and there’s a possibility that your date might be affected by Covid, making a plan B that secures your artist for a ‘backup’ date would be sensible. The good news is, you can reserve your artist for a potential date in the future while still keeping your contract in place for your current date.

Here’s how it works:

• Your Coordinator will contact your artist to check availability and get mutual agreement.
• You’ll pay a Reserve Fee to secure your artist for a potential ‘reserve date’ should anything go wrong with your original date.
• A Reserve Fee is not the same as a deposit. As it is for a booking that you might not need, and we can no longer sell the artist on that date, Reserve Fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.
• We’ll take the artist ‘off-the-market’ for the reserve date. No one will be able to book them for that date while your reservation is in place.
• if your original booking can go ahead, your reserve booking will be cancelled.
• If your original booking can't go ahead, your reserve booking will kick in.
• Any deposit credit will ‘leapfrog’ your original date. It will instead be available should your reserve date fall through due to Covid.
• If your reserve booking also needs to be moved as a result of Covid restrictions, you’ll receive 100% deposit credit to use towards the deposit due on a third date.

What If I Have Wedding or Event Insurance?

Check your policy before you make changes

It’s a good idea to check your policy to see under what circumstances you are covered before cancelling. This may help recover some, if not all your costs.

What If The Situation Changes?

Keeping you updated

We’ll edit this page regularly, so do check back for the latest updates. You might also want to keep tabs on the UK Government's official restrictions here.

How we're ensuring continued support for our clients and artists

• Our team is here to support our clients and artists throughout the coronavirus crisis.
• The welfare of our staff, customers and artists is our top priority, and we will be following the guidance laid out by the government to help protect everyone.
• Staff are able to work from home if required, using the same phone and administrative systems we use in the office.
• There should be no disruption or changes in how you can contact us, though we are busier than usual.
• Where individual entertainment coordinators may become ill, or where they are furloughed, the rest of the team has immediate access to support their events through our cloud based booking management system.
• We will use our own bespoke cloud based CMS / CRM systems to continue managing enquiries, bookings and artist profile information as normal.
• We are using video conferencing and chat software to facilitate immediate and efficient communication between all staff and teams.
• We are using project management software to coordinate and develop contingency plans across our teams.

If you need more help, please don’t hesitate to drop your Entertainment Coordinator an email, or give us a call on 01782 740839. We’re here to help wherever we can.

Useful resources:

UK Gov - Social distancing guidance

UK Gov - COVID response

UK Gov - Travel advice