From New Orleans, to Venice and Rio de Janeiro, people are dancing in the streets.
It’s Mardi Gras season, and millions of revellers throughout the world join the celebrations with wild street parties, masquerade balls, and spectacular parades.
Rio’s Carnival alone attracts more than 700,000 tourists annually and pumps $500 million into the city’s economy. For organisers and performers, more is at stake than just some pre-Lenten indulgence.
The celebrations are the culmination of months of hard work, preparation, and financial investment, and anyone with a role in organising the festivities also has an incentive to protect their assets. That’s where festival and street party insurance comes in.
Revelling risks
“Lloyd’s has a role in insuring the majority of major events around the world, including major carnivals and festivals. As a specialist insurance market it is very relevant in contingency and event insurance and there are lots of risks coming to Lloyd’s from the overseas markets, where the local markets don’t have the appetite or expertise to cover it,” said Jon Wilkinson, Chief Operating Officer of WorldWide Special Risks, a Lloyd’s coverholder that writes policies specifically for festivals and street parties.
The need for this type of specialist cover is certainly there. In early February, a warehouse fire destroyed millions of dollars worth of costumes, props and floats for three samba groups due to participate in the Rio Carnival parades. Losses for one group reportedly reached $5.5 million (US).
Celebration cover
There are three main areas of coverage for street parties and festivals. Public and employers liability cover protect event coordinators in the event they are accused of being negligent, and most often when someone is injured at the venue.
Cancellation or abandonment cover will reimburse organisers for costs, as well as expected profits if certain festivities must be cancelled, even if it’s due to adverse weather conditions. Finally, property damage ‘all risks’ cover will protect both owned and hired costumes and equipment in the event of theft or damage.
Even when disaster strikes the best planned events, paying losses isn’t the only way insurers help. “Sometimes insurers are the ones that make sure the show can go on,” said Wilkinson. He gave the example that his firm will organise and supply matting for walkways that may be too wet or slippery for the event to take place otherwise. “Insurers are often willing to lay out costs for their clients to enable the event to go ahead that would be otherwise cancelled. We work with specialist adjusters to determine how we can help save an event. That’s the positive side to this type of insurance,” he said.
Source : Lloyds
