Non-Appearance and Cancellation Insurance

What is Cancellation Insurance?

Cancellation cover replaces lost revenue and reimburses expenditure incurred from an event which is necessarily and unavoidably postponed, abandoned, cancelled, curtailed or relocated in circumstances beyond your control.

What if...

• A performer cancels due to illness or injury?
• A band can't perform because of travel delays?
• Adverse weather forces your event to be cancelled?
• A terrorist attack occurs at the venue / in the vicinity?

With Non-Appearance and Cancellation Insurance you can protect income that depends on the event going ahead, or just cover specific costs such as venue hire, artist accommodation, travel and marketing. Even if it's a free event with no ticket revenue at stake, Cancellation Insurance can cover incurred expenditure.

What can be covered?

• Your irrecoverable costs & expenses
• Loss of revenue or net profit
• Additional expenses to reduce a loss
• Damages resulting from failure to vacate a venue for which you are legally liable under contract
• Future event protection to minimize adverse effect on subsequent events in a series

You can also extend your Event Cancellation Insurance coverage to include:

• Terrorism
• Enforced Reduced Attendance if a specific incident impacts on attendance

Pre-existing medical conditions, lack of interest/ticket sales, and financial insolvency of the parties are standard exclusions - and pencilled dates without contracts or letters of agreement cannot be claimed.

Question: Do you know your legal obligations regarding ticket refunds? Do you have an explicit policy in place - and is it appropriate?

Find out more about Cancellation coverage and what to consider with our How to... Avoid the Top 6 Cancellation Blunders.

How much does it cost?

Cancellation Insurance is highly flexible, and can be customized to your needs. You can choose both the sum insured and period of the policy, which could be 12 months, or just specific dates. You might opt to include only your soloists.

The premium is a rate percent of the total sum insured. This can range from 1.00% to 3.5% - depending on factors like artists' ages, cancellation loss history, level of income generation, and whether the event is indoors/outdoors.

Case Studies

Adverse weather

An outdoor opera company cancelled two performances due to floods as neither audience nor orchestra could access the site since all approach roads were under water.

Non appearance

An opera singer fell ill with laryngitis days before a European festival appearance. A last minute replacement was found, contracted and travelled in time to make rehearsals and the performance.

Travel delays

A leading orchestra arrived at London Heathrow prior to an international tour to find the airport closed due to a strike. Cancellation of the tour would have cost GBP 35,000 and so insurers paid for the orchestra to be transported to London Gatwick, where a private plane was chartered to fly them to the first country of the tour.

Terrorism

A US string quartet was due to play at London's Wigmore Hall three days after 9/11 and with all flights out of New York grounded they were unable to travel, forcing cancellation of the concert.