Event Cancellation Insurance – Expect the Unexpected! 

Having appropriate event cancellation insurance in place is paramount to ensure your financial protection should your event be cancelled, abandoned or postponed. Circumstances that are outside of your control can often lead and event being disrupted and forcing postponement. 

An outdoor concert was set up near a picturesque lake, and everything was going according to plan. The setting was beautiful, the weather was perfect and the crowd was ready for a fantastic night of music. However, the stage had been positioned a little too close to the water, which caught the attention of a bank of swans who lived nearby.

As the band began to play, the swans made their entrance, waddling onto the stage with the kind of confidence usually reserved for rock stars. At first, the crowd thought it was a planned part of the show, cheering and laughing at the unexpected visitors. The swans, though, had no intention of leaving. They plonked themselves down right in front of the band and started honking loudly over the music .

The musicians tried to carry on but the swans’ honks were surprisingly loud and echoed through the PA system.  Security attempted to gently coax the birds away, but the swans were not having any of it and hissed at anyone who came too close. Security gave up, and they had to call in animal control.

The concert was put on hold whilst they took over and after some professional intervention, they managed to get the birds off the stage and herd them back to the lake! The audience was amused to begin with, but as you can imagine, they were getting impatient by the end.

In this particular case, the event insurance covered the cost of the delay, including the extra time required for venue rental and staffing as this this would generally be covered under the “Event Cancellation, abandonment or postponement” section of this particular event insurance policy. Event cancellation insurance can include cover for financial losses resulting from unexpected interruptions, delays, or postponements that are beyond the organiser’s control. This cover is a valuable addition in any event insurance policy, helping organisers manage financial risks associated with unexpected scenarios like adverse & dangerous weather, power outages or unusually a bank of territorial swans.

The band joked afterward that the swans had stolen the show and the event became locally famous as ‘The Swan Concert.’ Even though it wasn’t planned, the stage invaders made it into a memorable highlight that people talked about for years! Who would have thought a flock of birds could cause so much chaos and this is why Event Cancellation Insurance is highly recommended. The team at David J Miller Insurance can help, so get in touch.