Health Min. asked concert organizer not to produce dance events

In a big departure from this summer's "dancing with Janssen", caretaker Health Minister Hugo de Jonge on Monday asked concert organizer MOJO to not organize any dance events in the coming period, in view of upcoming relaxations of the coronavirus restrictions. "Actually, we were asked to ban dancing," MOJO director Ruben Brouwer said on Op1.

The cabinet will hold a press conference on Tuesday, announcing what the coronavirus restrictions will look like in the coming period. Sources close to the cabinet said that social distancing will be scrapped, coronavirus access passes will be mandatory in more settings, full football stadiums will be allowed, and events without fixed seats will be allowed at 75 percent capacity.

According to Brouwer, De Jonge did not give any explanation for why MOJO should ban dancing or why events can't have full capacity, but football matches can. "We have now finished talking about the content. If you want to enter into discussion, it is said again: but the OMT! While the cabinet cannot explain in any way why the rule of only 75 percent attendance must be adhered to," Brouwer said. "The cabinet is well aware that no good event can be organized with that 75 percent occupancy. You can only create something good with a lot of material. Sometimes you only start having money left over in the last 10 percent of visitors."

MOJO and others in the events industry cannot understand why the cabinet is being so obstructive, Brouwer said. "We have demonstrably proven that the risk at a concert or event is smaller than when you receive people at home. We work with access passes, we know who bought tickets. All these measures make the risk of people being infected demonstrably small."

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