AMSTERDAM (AP) – For months, Dutch music fans have been banned from attending large-scale festivals due to coronavirus restrictions. The festivals came to them on Saturday.
Hundreds of performers and festival organizers held marches through six Dutch cities on Saturday to protest what they argue are unfair restrictions that have forced them to cancel summer music festivals and other events.
Thousands of people attended one of the “Unmute Us” marches in Amsterdam, walking and dancing behind a convoy of trucks carrying DJs and sound systems pumping music.
Leonie der Verkleij, a self-employed person working in event hospitality services, was one of the people leaving for Amsterdam.
“The festival industry feels like an unwanted child,” he said. “It seems like all sectors are important except ours.”
The municipality of Amsterdam made a call in the middle of the afternoon so that no more people would join the march, as it was too crowded.
The Dutch government has banned large-scale events such as festivals until at least September 19 amid fears about the spread of the highly infectious delta variant. One-day events with a maximum of 750 visitors are allowed for people with a COVID-19 application who prove to have been vaccinated, who have been negative recently, or who have recovered from a case in the last six months.
Organizers of Saturday’s protest want the ban lifted on Sept. 1. They point to events abroad and the return of crowds to football stadiums, with vaccination tests, COVID-19 recovery or a negative test, as proof that people can congregate to a large extent. figures without the infection numbers growing.
Jasper Goossen of Openkooi Events, which organizes dance festivals, said hundreds of festivals have been canceled due to the pandemic, which paralyzes an industry that employs 100,000 people.
“There are so many passionate people working in this industry and everyone is having a great time. We want to move forward, not stand still, ”he said.
Dutch organizers point to festivals in other countries that have not become large-scale events, such as the Lollapalooza summer music festival. in Chicago. Chicago authorities said they had linked 203 COVID-19 cases to the four-day event that attracted 385,000 people.
Protesters carried home banners that said, “Music = Medicine” and “Don’t cancel the culture.”
Festivals are a traditional feature of European summer, but many have been canceled or postponed this year. In England, many of the most important events, such as Glastonbury in the south-west of England and BST Hyde Park in London, were canceled for the second year in a row due to the pandemic.
But the removal of all remaining restrictions on social contact in England on July 19 has at least allowed some to occur. However, the organizers of the Notting Hill Carnival in west London, which is considered the largest street fair in Europe, decided before these restrictions were removed to cancel the two-day event. in late August due to the “constant uncertainty and risk” presented by COVID. 19.
In France, festivals are allowed for people with a virus permit who show that they have been completely vaccinated, have been negative recently, or have recently recovered from the virus. However, many organizers have reduced the maximum number of people per day. The country’s largest festival, the Vieilles Charrues, set a limit of 5,000 spectators each day.
The average of 7 days of new daily cases in the Netherlands decreased slightly in the last two weeks, from 16.45 new cases per 100,000 people on August 6 to 15.05 new cases per 100,000 people on August 20. ‘August. About 18,000 people have died in the Netherlands from COVID-19.
Melvin van Pelt, a DJ and producer working under the Tahko name, said he has worked at government testing and vaccination centers to help pay his rent and agrees with many coronavirus measures, but he already has enough with the festival ban.
“I am just sick of it. I’m angry. I no longer feel represented by my own government, ”he said.
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The writers of the Associated Press, Pan Pylas in London and Sylvie Corbet in Paris collaborated.
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