“That brings a lot of hassle for visitors, which can be easily prevented by getting vaccinated as soon as possible,” says Bente Bollman, marketing director of both festivals.
According to Bollman, it is not at all intended as vaccination advice, as it is understood by many people on social media. “We don’t want to force a vaccination on anyone. As is also stated in the message, everyone is in charge of their own body.”
According to him, there are many questions among visitors about the conditions under which they can visit the festival. “That is a political decision and it has not yet been taken. But we have made an advance on that and communicated what we think it will look like in the future.”
Negative reactions
He has also seen that there have been many negative reactions to this and, in his opinion, they give a distorted picture. “These are mainly people who react negatively to everything about corona and most of whom have never been to Lowlands.”
“Other people, who are our visitors, do respond positively to that. They are happy if it can go smoothly and that it can continue.”
‘Huge operation’
The guidelines for multi-day festivals will be announced today from The Hague. Bollman expects interim testing to become one of the obligations.
“It is an enormous operation, but it can be realized because it does not apply to all visitors, but only to the people who are not protected. And that is a relatively small part of the approximately 55,000 visitors at Lowlands.”
Impossible
For the organization of the Zwarte Cross Festival, the interim testing was a reason not to let the festival go ahead. “We think it is impossible for the organization of the festival to pay, arrange and maintain it,” says organizer Ronnie Degen.
“That is difficult with 25,000 people at a campsite. That is why we canceled Zwarte Cross this year. Instead, the Mega Immune Party is held, which also lasts three days, but that is without camping and therefore without interim tests on the site.”
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