Dut𒁃ch music fans have been banned 𒈔for months from going to large-scale music festivals due to coronavirus restrictions. On Saturday, the festivals came to them.
Hundreds of performers and festival organisers held marches through six Dutch cities on Saturday to protest what they argue are unfair restrictions that have forced the cancellation of summꩲer 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 sys♏tems pumping out music.
Leonie der Verkleij, a f💟reelancer who works in hospitality services at events, was among those marching in Amsterdam.
“Th🎐e festival industry feels li🎀ke an unwanted child,” she said. “It feels like all sectors are important except ours.”
The Dutch government has banned large-scale events such as festivals until at least September 19 amid fears over the spread of the highly infectious 🧸de🌟lta variant.
One-day events with a maximum of 750 visitors are allowed for people with a COVID-19 app showing they have been vaccinated, ha♉ve re💛cently tested negative or have recovered from a case in the past six months.
Organisers of Saturday'🙈s protest want the ban lifted on ♛September 1. They point to overseas events and the return of crowds to soccer stadiums — with proof of vaccination, recovery from COVID-19 or a negative test — as evidence that people can congregate in large numbers without infection numbers surging.
Jasper Goossen of Apenkooi Events, which organizes dance festivals, said hundreds of festivals have been canceled due to the pandemic, crippling an industry that employs ꦡ100,000 people.
“There are so many passionate people working in this industry and they are all having a tough time. We want to move forward, not stand stꦐill,” he said.
Dutch organisers point to festivals in other countries t𒀰hat have not turned into superspreader events, such as the summer's Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. Authorities in Chicago said they had linked 203 COVID-19 cases to the four-day event that drew 385,000 people.
Marchers꧑ carried h🔯ome-made banners reading: “Music = Medicine” and “Don't Cancel Culture.”
Festivals are a traditionꩲal feature of the Euꦉropean summer, but many have been cancelled or postponed this year.
In England, many of the biggest 𒁏events, such as Glastonbury in southwest England and BST Hyde Park in London, were cancelled for the second year running because of the pan♏demic.
But the lifting of all remaining r♋estrictions on social contact in England on July 19 has at least allowed some to take place. However, organizers of the Notting Hill Carnival in west London, which is billed as Europe's biggest street fair, decided before those restrictions were lifted to cancel the two-day event in late August because of the “ongoing uncertainty and risk” posed by COVID-19.
In France, festivals are allowed for people with a virus pass showing they are fully vaccinated, recently tested negative or recently recovered from the virus. Yet many organizers have reduced 𝓡the maximum number of people per day.
The country's biggest festival, tไhe Vieilles Charrues, set a limit of 5,000 spectators each day.
The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in Netherlanꦅds eased slightly over the past two weeks, going from 16.45 new cases per 100,000 people on August 6 to 15.05 new cases per 100,000 people on August 20.
Nearไly 18,000 people have died in the Netherlands of COVID-19.
Melvin van Pelt, a DJ and producer who works under the name Tahko, said he's worked in governmꦦent testing and vaccination centers to help pay his rent and agrees with many coronavirus measures, but he's had enough of the festival ban.
“I am sick of it. I'm angry. I no lon🅘ger feel represented by my own government,” he said.
