Thousands of people to protest coronavirus measures in event sector

Under the motto “Unmute us!”, thousands of festival organizers, artists and event builders will demonstrate on Saturday against the coronavirus restrictions placed on the events sector. They demand that events will be allowed again at full capacity from September 1 onwards.

On August 13, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced during a press conference that festivals will not go through until at least September 20 and nightclubs will have to close their doors until November 1.

The decision was not comprehensible to many in the events sector, given that other events are allowed to go thorugh. Camping at the Grand Prix in Zandvoort, for example, is permitted. Over 200 thousand people were anticipated in total the races.

“We are not okay with the government’s random implementation of their policy”, organizer of Unmute us! Jasper Goossen told RTL Nieuws. The Grand Prix shows, according to Goossen, that large events are possible without creating too much pressure for the healthcare system.

The risk of infection is the same at the Grand Prix as it would be at a festival, experts said.

“Unmute Us! believes that the government needs to put an end to measuring with two tapes. Let festivals and other events also go thorugh”, Goossen stated.

The protest will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Eindhoven and Nijmegen.