Dutch Minister Hugo de Jonge of Public Health said today that “massive events” will only take place once there is a vaccine against Covid-19. This announcement comes as a part of the step-by-step plan to relax the Covid-19 lockdown in the Netherlands.
“For the last step, the massive events with a national quality, we can not yet give a date…Actually, that is only possible once there is a vaccine, and no one knows how long that will take. Of course we hope for soon, but a year or more is very likely.”
Hugo de Jonge
This announcement comes a few weeks after the country banned all events until September 1st.
What is considered as a “Massive event” is still unclear, but this announcement puts in jeopardy many of the events that were not canceled yet. The main one being Amsterdam Dance Event, the biggest electronic music gathering in the world, during which Amsterdam Music Festival takes place, with 40,000 attendees.
A few months ago, cancellation of summer events seemed already bad enough for many. Today, with this announcement and the cancellation of many already-postponed events, we might be facing the harsh truth that the next festivals opening-up again will only be in 2021.
