Everything is committed before anyone has bought a ticket.Founded by an Emmy-nominated television editor.
Most of a festival’s money is spent before the gates open. We write the crowd, the weather, the artists and the infrastructure around that fact.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
We were editing television long before we were insuring it.
Kevin Kelsey
Founder | Principal Agent
IATSE Local 700 member
Boring’s founder, Kevin Kelsey, edited television for fifteen years before he sold a policy. He was Emmy-nominated for The Muppets Mayhem, cut Shark Tank, Big Brother, Dancing with the Stars and Wheel of Fortune, and handled compliance and risk for some of Hollywood’s largest production companies. So the person building your coverage has been on a crew list, dealt with the permit offices, and met network and streamer requirements from the production side, rather than working from a rate manual. He also builds post-production software. Manifest Post is the board episodic post teams use to track every episode, and B/side is a video editor for people who cut together. He holds a number of patents on that software. So he knows the post side of a production as a vendor to it. We insure productions from Los Angeles to Atlanta, New York and Toronto, with worldwide and foreign production coverage.
The work is placed with the markets that actually write film, television and live entertainment — Zurich through ISC Entertainment (formerly Abacus), Philadelphia Insurance Companies, Take1 and Alive Risk — rather than with a general small-business carrier asked to try.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What music festival businesses actually need.
Event cancellation
Reimburses the committed costs of an event that cannot go ahead for a reason outside your control, and the exposure peaks before the gates open, because most of the money is spent by then.
Without it — The costs are already spent when the reason to cancel arrives, and weather is the most likely reason.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage. It is the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — A crowd in a temporary environment is the core exposure, and every landowner and authority will require it named.
Liquor liability
If you serve alcohol, your general liability almost certainly excludes what happens after you serve it.
Without it — Serving alcohol at scale to a crowd is excluded by general liability outright.
Non-appearance
Responds when the specific named artist people bought tickets to see cannot perform, through illness, injury or travel failure, which general event coverage does not carry by default.
Without it — The tickets were sold on a headliner who can lose their voice like anybody else.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — Build and strike crews do heavy work at height and against a deadline.
Inland marine & equipment
Tools, equipment and property in transit. It picks up exactly where commercial property stops, which is the moment the item leaves the building.
Without it — Stages, barriers, production gear and temporary infrastructure are hired in and your responsibility while they are on site.
Assault & battery
A fight in a bar is an intentional act, and general liability excludes intentional acts, so the claim most likely to arrive from a late-night venue is the one most often uninsured.
Without it — Crowd management, security contractors and alcohol together produce the claim general liability sublimits.
Umbrella & excess liability
Extra limit stacked above general liability, auto and employers liability. Usually the cheapest million dollars on the policy.
Without it — Landowner agreements and local authority licenses routinely specify limits above primary.
What the insurance company will ask about your music festival business
We read the applications the markets use for businesses in this field and pulled out what they actually ask. Have these answers ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week, because nobody has to come back to you for the missing piece.
About the business
- How long have you been promoting MMA events under your current business name?
- What types of venues do you normally book (clubs, arenas, stadiums, outdoor fields)?
- Do you co-promote events with other promoters?
- Do you own or have exclusive promotion rights at any venues?
How you operate
- Will you sell alcohol at this event?
- Who provides security—you, the venue, a hired service, or police?
- How many security people will be at the event?
- Will you allow mosh pits, stage diving, or crowd surfing, and what steps will you take to manage them?
- Who provides first aid, and will they have a certificate of insurance naming you?
Safety and controls
- Are you a member of an event safety association?
- What fire protection will be available (extinguishers, sprinklers)?
- Do you have an emergency evacuation plan?
- Will you monitor weather, use cameras, have perimeter fencing, provide lighting, or patrol parking?
- Are there any bodies of water at the event, and if so, will swimming be allowed with a certified lifeguard present?
Your history
- What are your losses or claims from the last five years?
- Has this event been held before?
Money and people
- How many people do you expect to attend this event?
- What is your expected gross revenue for this event?
- Do you receive commissions on alcohol or concessions sales?
Have these ready
- Your last five years of claims history from your current insurance company, called loss runs
- The venue contract or rental agreement for this event
- Copies of insurance certificates from any security company, first aid provider, or other hired services that name you as an additional insured
- A diagram of the event layout, especially for outdoor events
- Your emergency evacuation plan
You answer what you can; a licensed agent fills the rest with you.
What our music festival clients ask us.
When is it too late to buy cancellation coverage?
Once a threat is foreseeable, which in practice means once the forecast exists. Underwriters will not write a weather peril into a policy for an event with a named storm approaching, and they will not cover a circumstance you already knew about. Cancellation coverage is bought at the point the event is committed on paper, which is also the point the first large non-refundable deposits go out.
Our security is contracted. Whose insurance responds to a crowd incident?
Probably both, and the question is whether the contractor’s policy is real. A plaintiff will name the festival and the security firm together, so what matters is the firm’s own assault and battery limit, which is frequently sublimited to a fraction of their headline general liability — and whether you are an additional insured on it. Ask for the certificate and read the sublimit specifically rather than the headline number.
Does the venue’s insurance cover us?
No. A landowner or venue carries coverage for their premises and their own negligence; your event, your crowd and your contractors are yours. Nearly every site agreement makes this explicit by requiring you to insure and to indemnify them, and to name them as additional insured. Read the agreement before you price the event, because the limits it specifies are a real cost line.
What does a music festival insurance application ask for?
The applications for music festival businesses ask about 4 things above all: how long have you been promoting mma events under your current business name; will you sell alcohol at this event; are you a member of an event safety association; what are your losses or claims from the last five years. Have your last five years of claims history from your current insurance company, called loss runs and the venue contract or rental agreement for this event ready and a quote takes a day instead of a week.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.