Utrecht cafe reopening trial already fully booked

The Fieldlab Cafe experiment to test the impact of reopening five specific cafes in Utrecht has closed the registration period. The organization says all 90-minute time slots during the three-day test have been fully booked. A thousand people per day are expected to take part in the pilot program.

The public sign-up opened on Wednesday for visits to the city center cafes. At one point, the website created to accept reservations crashed due to a traffic overload, making it temporarily unavailable.

Experiments will be carried out during from April 14 - 17 in Hofman, de Beurs, Ubica, Vinvin, and 't Oude Pierement. During this trial event, the researchers will look into staff and guest's interactions in a cafe setting. The government believes this will help decide how the hospitality sector can safely be reopened at a later stage.

To attend an event, a reservation on the Fieldlab Cafes website and proof of a negative coronavirus test is required. A thousand people per day are expected to take part in the experiment.

Fieldlab Cafes is organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, the municipality of Utrecht, Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN), the Horeca Alliance and TNO. The latter will be in charge of analyzing data gathered during the test next week.

In addition to Fieldlab Cafés, a few more similar trial events will take place in Utrecht and around the country in April. Just in Utrecht, the TivoliVredenburg, the Railway Museum, City Theater, Holland Casino, EKKO and De Helling will welcome back some visitors, albeit temporarily, local media outlet Duic reported.