A boat trip on the Vecht is also fun

Sheila Kamerman

‘I’m so done with this government’

‘Gvd but really’

‘Just let us live’

‘But it’s also just retarded’

These are the first reactions in the app group of an Ommens friends club on partially reverse it of the corona relaxation of two weeks earlier.

The stricter measures took effect this weekend and will last until at least August 14. It was exactly that weekend that the group of friends – all between the ages of 20 and 25 – planned their first joint events: Freshtival, a three-day festival in Enschede.

‘Gvd what the hell is this’

‘We will build our own festival in the woods of Ommen’

‘Yes techno party’

‘Do we ask la fuente?’ [DJ La Fuente]

It would be a long, slutty summer in which everything was finally possible again: drinking, dancing, in crowded nightclubs. In the sun during festivals. And above all no distance again. No fixed places where you have to sit. Just loose, close together if you want, all a sip from the same bottle. No rules, no regulations. Free.

But it seems a grumpy summer to become. The infection figures have shown a significant peak in the past week, especially among young people who are far from being vaccinated. At the same time, it was mainly young people who went out again en masse. That freedom is now severely curtailed. Horeca has to close at 12 o’clock in the morning. Nightclubs and discotheques will remain closed for the time being.

Dramatic

I think it’s dramatic, says Sem Heezen (26), Saturday evening after midnight in the center of Rotterdam. He eats a spring roll with his girlfriend Esther van Mourik (25). They would go with a group of friends to the Dekmantel Festival in Amstelveen, early August. Tickets and hotels were booked. “That is now falling into the water again.”

I have the feeling, says Sem Heezen, that the government does not realize how important nightlife is for young people. They can let all the stress flow away for a while and enjoy. You get to know your best friends. You get to know yourself. An important part of growing up.” That may be even more true for LGBT people, he says, for whom certain clubs save spaces where they can really be themselves.

They also find it incredibly sour for the festival organizers. “It’s a real disaster for them,” says Esther van Mourik. “They have been unable to do anything for a year and a half and have made major investments.”

Student house

Nora Maas (23) who lives with four girls in a student house in Utrecht, is in quarantine instead of in a club. Two housemates went to Club Poema in the center of Utrecht a week ago. Four days later they received complaints. Both proved positive.

Nora Maas: „I heard that while I was facetime with two friends, both from different student houses. During that conversation, they were both also told that they had been in contact with someone who is infected and had to be quarantined. Many of my friends are in quarantine. While they themselves have not even been out.”

Everyone had to stay inside, except the housemate who is on vacation. Nora Maas: „Until last week I was busy with the last deadlines for school. I could finally go out this weekend. And I had a graduation party.”

Also read: Rising number of infections, but hospitals are not filling up — has the cabinet learned from last summer?

She had planned several festivals in the near future and a holiday with a friend to Spain. She had a ticket for Lowlands at the end of August. “When I heard that people were going to use each other’s QR codes to get in somewhere, I thought: as long as it goes well. But you hope so. You want it to go well and only get better.”

Aspen Valley

Back to Overijssel. A group of eight friends from Enschede stands on the banks of the Overijsselse Vecht in Ommen. They spent a day sailing with a friend’s boat. Lucille Marras (18) was dancing in the club Aspen Valley in Enschede on June 26 – the first day everything reopened. She had a wonderful evening, but a few days later she was sick and tested positive. Just like the two friends she was with.

Aspen Valley proved to be the first hot spot after the reopening of the clubs. The dozens of young people who had danced, drank and kissed closely together – and who had not yet been (fully) vaccinated – infected many others before they realized that they themselves were infected. A week ago, it caused a peak in the Twente infection figures.

Lucille Marras illness out in quarantine. “Fortunately the weather was nice and I could sit in the garden a lot.” She has two trips abroad planned, to Gran Canaria and to Mallorca. She hopes they can continue.

Asley Quak (19) saw a surf holiday in Portugal fall into the water. “Of course you’re upset then.” Now she is going to Limburg.

They suck, but not too much. Enschede people are sober, they say. Tom van Dijk (19): „It is not nice, but we will manage. Going to nightclubs or discotheques didn’t seem so wise to us anyway. It is also possible to meet with a smaller group. Or a boat trip like today, that’s fun too.”

In Rotterdam, three friends from Barendrecht have the same laconic attitude. Two of them are almost birthday – they will be 22 and 23 – and had tickets to Toffler nightclub to finally celebrate it properly again, with a lot of friends. “But that’s not happening.”

Mike (22): “If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”

Thomas (almost 22): “It’s a pity, but public health comes first.”

Luuk (almost 23): “That fantastic summer will come next year.”

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