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What Event Insurance Covers
Event insurance covers the crowds, the venues, the equipment, the cancellations and the staff of businesses that stage, run or perform: event management companies, exhibition and conference organisers, entertainment and performance businesses, sports and fitness operators, and wedding planners and suppliers. One policy for the business, or one for the event, depending on how you trade.
Events put a lot of people, structures and equipment in one place for a short time. Someone slips, is struck or is hurt in a crowd, and a liability claim follows. A stage, a rig, a marquee or a temporary structure fails. Lighting and sound gear is damaged or stolen in the bump-out. An event is cancelled by weather, a venue problem or a supplier failure, and deposits, extra costs and ticket revenue are lost.
Venues and councils require a certificate of currency for public liability insurance before a booking is confirmed, and the limit they ask for is usually set in the venue contract. Supplier and performer contracts shift liability in both directions, and a wedding or event planner can be claimed against for a service error or a supplier that never arrived, which is a professional indemnity question.
Fortis Risk Solutions arranges event insurance for event and entertainment businesses across Australia from offices in Box Hill and Hawthorn, as part of our business insurance range. We read the venue contract, the run sheet and the supplier agreements before approaching insurers, so the limits match what the venue demands and the cover follows the equipment from the warehouse to the stage.
Who this covers
Crowds, structures and dates that cannot move. The notes below show what each type of business insures.
Event management
Running events at other people’s venues. Public liability at the limit the venue requires, professional indemnity for planning and coordination, property cover for owned and hired equipment, and event cancellation per event or on an annual policy.
Exhibitions and conferences
Stands, temporary structures, exhibitors and delegates. Public liability for the floor, property for the build, cancellation cover for the dates, and the venue contract read for the limits and the indemnities it imposes.
Entertainment and performance
Performers, crews, rigs and audiences. Public liability for the audience and the venue, property for instruments and production equipment in transit and on stage, personal accident for performers who are not employees, and non-appearance cover where a key person carries the show.
Sports and fitness businesses
Participants, not just spectators. Public liability that covers people taking part, professional indemnity for coaching and instruction, personal accident for instructors and members, property for the gym or the grounds, and abuse liability where children are coached.
Wedding services
Planners, celebrants, venues and suppliers on a date that cannot move. Professional indemnity for planning errors and supplier failures, public liability for the day, cancellation cover for the couple or the venue, and property cover for hired equipment.
Event Insurance: Cover Sections and Benefits
Event Insurance FAQs
Public liability at the limit venues require, usually ten or twenty million dollars, and written to cover every event the company runs. Professional indemnity for planning and coordination errors. Property cover for owned and hired equipment. A business insurance package for the office. Cancellation cover is bought per event or as an annual policy for businesses with a full calendar.
Only under an event cancellation section, which is separate from liability and property cover. It pays the irrecoverable costs and, where selected, the lost revenue when an event is cancelled, postponed or abandoned for a cause outside your control, which can include adverse weather for outdoor events, venue damage and non-appearance of a key person. Causes known at the time of purchase are excluded. Damage to your own premises that stops the business trading is a business interruption insurance question instead.
A business policy covers the events the business declares as its normal activity. A larger, riskier or unusual event, such as a festival, a motor event or anything with pyrotechnics or inflatables, may need to be declared and rated separately, or insured under a single event policy. The venue contract usually sets the limit, and the policy has to name the venue and the dates. Trucks and crew vehicles need commercial motor insurance of their own.
Public liability that covers participants, not just spectators, because many general wordings exclude injury to people taking part. Professional indemnity for coaching and instruction. Property cover for equipment. Personal accident for instructors and, where the club wants it, for members. Gyms and studios also need the premises covered under a business insurance package, and abuse liability where children are coached.
Employees are covered by workers compensation, which is compulsory. Contractors and volunteers are not, unless a personal accident section is arranged for them, which pays weekly benefits and lump sums after an injury regardless of fault. Public liability answers a claim by a performer against the business for negligence, but not the performer's own lost income. Most event businesses carry both.
Event wordings turn on participant definitions, height and pyrotechnics exclusions, hired equipment limits and the causes a cancellation policy will and will not answer. FRS helps you disclose the events and the venues accurately, structure limits to match venue contracts, compare insurers who write events and entertainment and act as your advocate at claim time, including claims that arrive after the bump-out.
Related pages
Related industry groups: Hospitality and Tourism Insurance, Community, Education and Public Sector Insurance, Health and Care Services Insurance
Talk to a broker about Events and Entertainment Insurance
Call 03 7046 3766 on weekdays between 9:30am and 6pm, email admin@fortisrisksolutions.com.au, or send an enquiry and a broker from our Box Hill or Hawthorn office will come back to you about events and entertainment insurance. Tell us what the business does and what the lease or contract asks for, and we take it from there.