No multi-day festivals in the Netherlands this summer

The Dutch government announced Monday the cancellation until September 1 of all events and festivals held over 24 hours to prevent further outbreaks of COVID-19 cases.

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The 2021 editions of internationally known music festivals such as Lowlands, Mysteryland and Down the Rabbit Hole, scheduled for August, are therefore canceled.

“Unfortunately, it is not reasonable to allow these events to continue,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at a press conference in The Hague.

The government believes that testing visitors every 24 hours during a festival would be logistically too complicated to organize.

The decision was taken “in consultation with the events sector,” said Mr. Rutte.

Events lasting more than 24 hours had already been suspended until August 13. The government has decided to extend the ban until the end of the summer.

The government has also announced an easing of travel restrictions, like most countries in the European Union.

From August 8, the Netherlands will no longer advise against travel within the EU. Holidaymakers must present a negative test or a vaccination certificate upon their return, and observe a period of quarantine, depending on the situation in the country visited.

An outbreak of contamination in early July, especially among young people, had forced the government to reverse the easing of health restrictions, including a new closure of nightclubs.

After hitting records, the contaminations curve was down in the Netherlands on Monday, with some 4,600 new cases reported, a figure below the average over the past seven days.

The country of 17 million people has recorded more than 1.8 million cases of coronavirus and 17,807 deaths. About 83% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine and 59% of adults are fully immunized.

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