Fieldlab Events has completed six of the eight test events. Program manager Pieter Lubberts assumes that an intermediate step is needed before events can take place at full capacity again.
“I don’t expect that we can go from a pilot with 1,500 people at one time to 60,000 people at a festival. Of course I hope so, but I don’t think so,” says Lubberts. “I think an intermediate step is needed in which we can apply the data that we have now collected in combination with rapid tests. That is necessary before we can open completely again.”
When the last trial events, two festivals on the Lowlands site, are over this weekend, the question remains what will be done with all the collected data. “That is an important question. It is not the case that if we have outcome X, that plan Y will happen. We really need to discuss this with the government, the OMT and the RIVM.”
Difference in behavior when presenter points out measures to the public
A conclusion that Fieldlab can draw from the tests is that the audience present, divided into bubbles subject to different rules, quickly forgets the measures. “But we also investigate this by not having the audience point out the measures by the presenter at the first concert, and at the second concert we do. You immediately see a difference in behavior. So it is nice to see that you as an organizer are very well able to pay attention to this on the spot and that it also has an immediate effect. “
At the two concerts that took place last weekend, the presenter called on visitors to have themselves tested after the event. A negative test result is mandatory in advance, but a test afterwards should not be required. For example, after Guido Weijers’ trial performance, about 80 percent of the 500 visitors had themselves tested a second time.
Lubberts: “We cannot do more than kindly ask people to have themselves tested again. But that test afterwards is not part of our research. It does not affect what we are analyzing for us.”
Positive and hopeful about next summer
Lubberts thinks it’s a shame that outgoing Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Health) was critical of the effect of the experiment if not everyone was tested afterwards. “But he has let it be known through his people that he did not mean it that way. He actually said more; as a visitor you participate in something so unique, then just cooperate and stick to all the conditions. I get that and there. I also agree. “
Fieldlab itself looks back at least on six successful events. Lubberts is optimistic about the upcoming festival summer. “Now that it has become known that everyone is expected to have their first injection in July and if the test capacity is in order, then I assume that things will really be allowed again in July. and I am a bit cautious about hard statements, but I am positive and hopeful about the coming summer. “
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