Organisers of Lancashire's 'biggest open-air festival' say they're taking covid safety seriously
Over 30,000 people are expected to head to Highest Point in Lancaster over the weekend
Over 30,000 people are expected to head to Lancashire's 'biggest open-air music festival' this weekend.
Highest Point Music Festival in Williamson Park in Lancaster opens its gates to ticket holders later.
It's after health bosses in the North West have warned there could be a huge spike in covid cases because of large scale events.
Nearly 5,000 covid-19 cases have been linked to Boardmasters Festival which took place in Newquay last month.
Jamie Scahill is one of the co-founders of Highest Point, he said they're taking safety seriously: "Everybody needs to show a negative test or be double-vaccinated or on the NHS app show that you've got anti-bodies from having covid within the last 180 days.
"That's the best we can do really, we want to make it as safe as possible for everybody and so everybody needs to show one of those, there's no exceptions to that and I think that's what every event are trying to do.
"Obviously there are going to be people who think festivals shouldn't go ahead but there are a lot of people who think they should go ahead. People have been kept inside or kept away from friends, or not been able to go to events for over 18 months, so I think people have got serious mental health issues from doing that and by going out it's a proven fact that music and friends really help with those issues."
"We've got over a hundred people working this festival to make it as safe as possible...it's a safe site, it's all outdoors.
"People can wear masks if they want to at the festival and there will be sanitising stations."
After having to re-arrange last year's festival four times, Jamie said he's excited to finally get back up and running: "2020 would have been our third year...so we're really excited to actually see it take shape. It's good to see all the people who have been out of work like the electricians, the set builders and site builders, it's good to see all them back on site and altogether, we're feeling great."