The cabinet announced last week that multi-day festivals and events are not allowed to continue until September 17. That’s the protesters of Unmute Us!’ thwarted.
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Why football and Formula 1 and not festivals?
The difference is in the fixed seats. With a corona ticket, an event may receive either 750 visitors or two thirds of the normal capacity, but with fixed seats. And those fixed seats are not realistic at a festival with music and thousands of visitors.
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Measuring with two sizes
The organization of the protest emphasizes that it is happy with allowing professional football with the public and soon Formula 1 in Zandvoort. “This confirms that it is possible and that the pressure on healthcare will not grow exponentially as a result,” says organizer of the march Jasper Goossen.
“But ‘Unmute Us!’ believes that the government should therefore put an end to double standards and let the festivals and other events continue as well.”
They have been preparing for events at the end of the summer for a long time and have incurred costs for this. “We were presented with a sausage all year round. Disappointment gives way to anger and incomprehension,” says Goossen.
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Costs partly reimbursed by government
If a festival cannot take place due to the corona restrictions, the organization can be reimbursed by the government. It concerns costs for logistics, safety, personnel and artists. The scheme can only be used if a cancellation insurance has been taken out for the previous edition and if a festival has registered for the subsidy scheme no more than three weeks before the start.
The Association of Event Makers previously calculated that in 2019 the expenditure of festival visitors (tickets, food and drinks) amounted to 961 million euros. The revenue from the entrance tickets (the gross receipts) rose in 2019 to a record high of 300 million euros, and almost 10 million tickets were sold.
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Full opening
The sector will take to the streets tomorrow afternoon in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Groningen and Eindhoven. Entrepreneurs are marching through the cities with a lot of noise and floats to put an end to ‘the arbitrariness’.
“We want to be able to meet again, to laugh and dance again. Above all, we want to be able to look forward again.” The industry is demanding full opening of the events sector as of September 1.
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