The ban for the event industry continues – but the reasons for it seem not to be valid anymore. A situation the “Unmute Us” movement wanted to emphasize with demonstrations in 6 Dutch cities. With music trucks and several Artists from the Harddance scene and more than 1500 organizations the number of participants was immense.
Rene
The unfair restrictions that have forced the cancellation of summer music festivals and other events need to stop now. The message was clear but the Dutch government has banned large-scale events such as festivals until at least Sept. 19. Main reason is officially the spread of the highly infectious delta variant. Currently, only single events with a maximum of 750 visitors are allowed for people with a COVID-19 app showing they have been vaccinated, have recently tested negative or have recovered from a case in the past six months.
OTHER COUNTRIES SHOW IT COULD WORK
Organizers of Saturday’s protest want the ban lifted on Sept. 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.Dutch organizers point to festivals in other countries that 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.
MORE 70.000 PARTICIPANTS
The echo was immense. More than 70.000 people supported the demonstration. In Amsterdam 10 music trucks moved through the city starting from the RAI. According to the organizers Apeenkooi Events, Vunzige Deuntjes, Ziggo Dome and Awakenings more than 45.000 people we counted on the streets.
In Groningen, more than 12.500 people demonstrated with 7 music trucks. In Utrecht more than 10.000 people gathered around 8 trucks. In Nijmegen several thousands walked through the city as they did in Rotterdam and Eindhoven.
More than 1500 organizsations and 70.000 participants are an incredibly proof – how important the scene is and how urgent we need a solution.
Conclusion
We are proud to see, how active hour harddance community is – and we are more than sure that this signal – this voice cant be overheard neither overseen. The sector is important – and other countries have already proven that large scale events do not need automatically become a large spreader. Now its up to the Dutch government to act.