"If someone is injured as a consequence of your negligence, then you are liable, insured or not. Having PLI protects you against bankruptcy, and ensures that the injured party gets paid compensation they are entitled to.

The venue, and the promoters of the craft fair, will have their own PLI, but that only covers their own liability. That's why they want to check that you have your own cover."

I understand the first part. But not (in practice) the second.

If joining the EFDSS grants me some kind of PLI, but it is not sufficient to put on a small event in a small room in a building owned by the EFDSS (who also have their own PLI!) then it rather begs the question "just what exactly DOES that PLI cover?"

Seems to be a bit useless. It's only in the organizing/promotional role that considerations of negligence/liability would arise! if you're just a musician playing at a gig, in a non-organizing capacity, there's nothing you can be negligent about in the first place.

It also begs a couple of other tangential questions, such as... why is it of any concern to a venue, or a craft fair, whether a musician or an exhibitor has PLI or not? It's utterly immaterial to them if somebody else gets sued as a result of that somebody else's negligence.

Especially when you consider the fact that on the rare occasions people DO get injured at concert venues, it is almost never the fault of the musician playing - it's generally things like access to exits, stairs etc. The suspicious part of me wonders whether a venue or an event that requires PLI on the part of musicians/exhibitors is doing so because, if anything were to go wrong, they would be doing their damnedest to pin it on anyone but themselves, and not lose a no-claims bonus.