No major events for a year or more, that’s a big shock for the event industry. As long as there is no vaccine against the coronavirus, festivals, sports competitions, and cultural events are in jeopardy. And no one knows how long that will take.
Whilst the first measures were announced to ease the lockdown, hopes for a return of the festival season grew. But the dark times for the festival scene seem to continue much longer than expected. In a letter to the Minister of Health ministry, Hugo de Jonge wrote that he is not yet able to give a date on which mass events will once again be possible.
“It will only be possible again when there is a vaccine and no one knows how long it will take. Of course, we hope for soon, but a year or more is very real”.
This means that especially event organizations are drowning in deep misery. The statement of the Association of Event Makers (VVEM) stated” “It’s a huge blow,”.
Work of more than a year
It usually takes a lot of time to organize and conduct a big event. So it’s more than likely that even if the weather is good, there will be a lot fewer events left over, says the VVEM.
“If you can’t do anything for such a long time, then at some point you’re going to examine your business operations. There will undoubtedly be companies that will not survive this.”
The big organizer Mojo who is responsible for the Lowlands and the North Sea Jazz festivals, says that organizing a big festival can easily take up to one year. “Usually we start in the summer. The uncertainty now is enormous about what will or won’t be possible.”
No Certainty anymore
Mojo judges the cabinet’s statement as ‘very tough’. The company says: “In the planning, we took into account the possibility that we could catch up in the season 2020-2021. So now we don’t have that certainty anymore”.
Development of a vaccine takes time
In a guest article, the scientist and virologist Christina Nicolodi describes in a guest article how complex vaccine development is – and why we should be prepared for long waiting times. In this article, she describes the six phases a new vaccine has to past and that is more than likely that we will have first vaccines in Spring 2021. Consequently, there will be no big events until there is effective vaccinum.