Features
Dutch Fest To Host 10,000 After ‘Encouraging’ Initial Test Results
JEROEN JUMELET/ANP/AFP via Getty Images – People dressed in orange dance as they attend a concert of 538 radio’s DJs to celebrate Koningsdag – King’s Day.
The festival usually takes place on the birthday of Dutch King Willem-Alexander in Breda, April 27, but will take place three days earlier this year.
Fieldlab Events, one of the initiators of the Dutch “Back To Live” campaign, has announced the next series of test events, where capacities are set to increase to up to 10,000 people outdoors.
The initial series of test events included a theater performance and a business congress dedicated to “Back To Live,” both with around 500 visitors at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht, as well as a rave at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome with 1,300 people.
The results from both the theater and congress events are now in, and they’re “encouraging,” according to the press release. Researchers had come up with eight building blocks with which to judge the trial events’ safety.
Behavior (1), Triage, tracking and tracing (2), rapid tests (3), air quality (4), visitor dynamics (5), personal measures (6), surface hygiene (7), and vulnerable groups (8).
The theater trial showed that 98.4% of visitors adhered to the instructions to wear a mask, even throughout the entire performance. The number of high risk contacts, defined by the researches as contacts of people standing closer than 1.5 meters for more than 15 minutes, was limited. This may be harder to guarantee at a business congress, where people actively go to in order to meet, than it is at the theater, where a spaced-out seating configuration takes care of distancing. Options of pre-ordering food and beverages can reduce the need to make contact with other human beings even further.
Beatrix Theatre had sufficient air ventilation in order to facilitate a safe environment, according to Fieldlab’s findings.
– Fieldlab Eventementen.
Initiators of a series of test events that will hopefully prove that live events aren’t a danger to society.
As far as masks are concerned, the effect on aerosol transmission has not been measured. They did ask visitors, however, whether they minded wearing one. The majority responded neutrally to positively with the responses varying slightly depending on whether they were asked to keep them on during the entire show vs. only when moving though the venue. The efficacy of face shields has not been measured.
The Dutch organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) is currently researching both, the efficacy of face masks against aerosols as well as the efficacy of face shield.
As far as testing is concerned, Fieldlab wanted to answer questions like, are rapid tests logistically deployable, or are there any discrepancies between rapid and PCR test results?
Researchers found that the use of a rapid test on site was “limited due to logistics.” In the case of the test events, some 10% of all visitors were tested on site. However, participants had to get a PCR test within 48 hours ahead of the event, and in no case did the rapid test results deviate.
Two things that weren’t looked at in this initial trial were the cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces and materials, as well as the vulnerable groups, which weren’t invited this time around. They will be during one of the next trial runs, though.
From this initial run, Fieldlab concluded, that Type I events can resume as soon as possible, even with a high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 within the population and other lockdown measures in place.
The following conditions should be met: rapid test at a decentralized location, close to home, within a maximum of 24 hours before the end of the event, the use of an app or alternative access control system to guarantee that only people with a negative test result enter the event.
Attendance on site should be limited to 50% capacity, in which case there’s no need for the audience to maintain a distance. If the location allows for it, visitors should be split up in different groups. Face masks should be worn at least while moving through the venue. A ventilation in accordance with building regulations should be installed, and active communication with visitors before, during and after the event, should be maintained, again, possibly via app.
Fieldlab has received the go-ahead from government for the next round of test events with much larger capacities, to see if they can be executed safely with the same set of measures in place.
April 24 will see both the opening of an amusement park in Kaatsheuvel to 8,000 visitors, and annual festival in honor of the Dutch king, 538 Oranjedag in Breda, with 10,000 visitors. The event sold out in no time, with more than one million applying during pre-registration, according to the website of radio station 538.
Apart from the required negative test result obtained no longer than within 24 hours before the end of the event, a second rapid test will be taken five days after the event. The vulnerable groups are excluded from participation.
This years Eurovision Song Contest has also been turned into a Fieldlab test event.
The events are a joint initiative of Fieldlab Events, Eventplatform, the Alliantie van Evenementenbouwers (Alliance of Event Builders) and ClickNL. The program is supported by the Dutch ministries of economic affairs and climate (EZK), of justice and security (J en V), of education, culture and science (OCW), and of health, welfare and sport (VWS).
The core team for the researchers consists of members of the Fieldlab Events program team, university clinic Radboudumc, Logistics Community Brabant/Breda University of Applied Sciences (LCB/BUas) and the technical university of Delft. Further support is provided by companies such as Bureau Franken, DCM, bureau Brandeis and researchers from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the university of Twente and the technical university of Eindhoven.
List of upcoming Fieldlab test events below:
April 24, The Efteling Kaatsheuvel, 8,000 cap
April 24, 538 Oranjedag, Chasséveld, Breda, 10,000 cap
May 1, Startschotgala, Lichtenvoorde 10,000
May 7, Concert by Dutch rock band Racoon, MAINSTAGE, Den Bosch, 3,500
May 8, Mud Masters, Floriadeterrein, Haarlemmermeer, 9,000
May 14 Het Residentie Orkest, Zuiderstrandtheater, The Hague, 1,000
May 15 Clubnight in Amsterdam, 1,000
May 16, Enschede Marathon, Airport Twenthe, 5,000
May 17-22, Eurovision Song Contest, Ahoy Rotterdam, 3,500 for each of a total of nine shows
May TBA, EventSummit, Jaarbeurs, Utrecht, 3,000
TBA “Back to Live” at Walibi Holland leisure park, Biddinghuizen, 9,000