Nightclub industry sees few problems on first ‘1G evening’

The first night out with the new 1G test policy did not seem to cause major problems at the door of nightclubs and other businesses. Organizers at a Carnival party in the Music Dome in Kerkrade and at a techno evening in De Marktkantine in Amsterdam said almost all visitors had their test certificate in order.

On Friday, many large locations in the catering industry opened their doors for the first time since the pandemic began for an old-fashioned club or party evening, without coronavirus restrictions. For occasions where more than 500 people gather, a negative Covid test is required. The Music Dome and De Marktkantine received many questions about the new test rules in advance.

About 2,400 Carnival celebrants were present at the party in Kerkrade, organizer Ramon Luckers told the ANP on Friday night. Almost everyone had their QR code in order, he said. A handful of partiers were turned away at the door because of a problem with their test certificate.

According to Luckers, these were mainly people who had tested positive, but had a recovery certificate with them. “That’s very confusing,” Luckers said. “Because they have a recovery certificate and are therefore actually cured, but you can still test positive a few weeks after you have recovered. The answer was that unfortunately we still have to adhere to the test policy.”

In De Marktkantine, all of the approximately 2,000 tickets for the techno party were sold out. An hour and a half after the doors opened, the Amsterdam club had refused about 15 people who did not have their test certificates in order. 

“I have to say that everything went well for me,” an employee said. “Maybe most of them had bought a ticket at the last minute and hadn’t considered the testing rules. And possibly there was also a tourist among them.”

Nachtbelang, an organization representing Dutch nightclubs, previously announced that the test policy for large clubs was not expected to work well. The organization reasoned that people would not want to get tested before a night out.