It's not usually difficult to obtain PLI cover from an insurance broker, and it's not necessary to rely on EFDSS cover. However for amateur and semi-professional (and many professional) performers a block policy like this is probably the most affordable. For many individuals and organisations the insurance is a significant benefit, and perhaps the main reason they are members.

I am involved with running a series of ceilidhs, and we affiliated to EFDSS in order to obtain PLI. We could have got this elsewhere, but our choice was partly so that the EFDSS could benefit. If they had not reversed the 2019 changes we would have left and gone elsewhere. The ceilidh band I play in does not use EFDSS for its PLI, we get it through a broker for less than the cost of affiliation.

A festival on the scale of Whitby clearly has requirements which go way beyond what the EFDSS cover can provide.