Culture sector presents plan to stay open in future Covid waves

The Culture Sector Taskforce submitted its plan for dealing with future coronavirus waves to the Cabinet this week. The main goal is for concert halls, theaters, museums, and stages to remain open, even in the worst-case scenario, Trouw reports.

Since the start of the pandemic, the culture sector was one of the first to close its doors during coronavirus waves. The sector also had to deal with varying and fickle policies. The sector plan aims to change that with fixed measures for each scenario.

“We use an alarm system with color codes, like the KNMI,” Jeroen Bartelse, member of the task force and director of TrivoliVredenburg, said to the newspaper. Code Green means all is well and no measures are needed. On Code Yellow, the sector implements fixed walking routes and contactless payment, among other things. Code Red - a serious outbreak - will mean various measures, from social distancing and face masks to testing for access.

The measures vary per type of event. “You need different measures at a pop concert where people stand than at a cinema where they sit, a museum where they walk around, or a festival where they are outside,” Bartelse said.

The task force is confident with its plans, but the sector still needs some certainty and guarantees from the government. “There must be guarantee schemes in every risk phase. Until September, the government will cover the costs if a major event or festival is canceled due to corona. But a cold letter from this spring stated that the government is phasing out all compensation. That makes us think: soon we will propose measures that we cannot afford because there is no support,” Bartelse said to the newspaper.

Among other things, the task force wants a safety net for freelancers and self-employed when a code red is announced. It also needs accessible infrastructure for Covid-19 testing.