“Don’t think, ‘I’m just writing an insurance policy,’” Holdom said. Simon O'Connor/Stuff Ifriqiyya Electrique closed out the 2020 Womad festival on the Brooklands Stage. Councillor Harry Duynhoven said the festival had been “reputationally hugely enhancing for our district” and also brought in locals not just to attend but to volunteer. A commercial entity running the event would not care about returning any surplus to the region as Taft does, Duynhoven said. “If we don’t have this protection in place for specifically a pandemic, then we will lose Womad. It’s simply inevitable over time.” Councillor Murray Chong said he was between a rock and a hard place.