Minister of the Interior Pieter De Crem (CD&V) would rather have Tomorrowland in Boom and Rock Werchter in Rotselaar near Leuven cancelled. The risk, in coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, is too big.
The involved mayors concur. Festivals in Dessel and Geel realise its very unlikely they will be able to go ahead. Others, like Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp and Maanrock in Mechelen hope for the best.
Pride
But what about Antwerp Pride with its parade on 8 August? Or the Belgian Pride with its parade on 29 august? You can’t call them ‘small festivals’.
Antwerp Pride boasted 150,000 participants and visitors over the five-day festival in 2019. The Belgian Pride spoke of 100,000 attendees on 18 May 2019.
These are no small gatherings. And perhaps also not the best idea(s) at this point. We can only wait for a decision by the National Security Council, which is expected by 19 April.
It’s mindboggling watching the ripple effect of this pandemic. I recently heard that the city of Edinburgh has cancelled all festivals for the rest of the year.
Which has effect on everything: venues, hotels, restaurants etc …
Exactly. I don’t know that the full effect will be known for some time. It’s scary.
Indeed. All hope is pinned on a normal 2021. But will it be?
Fingers crossed!
Better be close than dead. All will be back, WWI and WWII was worse and we survive. The crash of 1929 was worse and we survive. We will do better this time, BCE european central bank has 750 billion euros to support the economies all is sad and bad now but we will be up even the Queen of England is positive! Cheers up
Yes! The Queen is positive. I mostly find it interesting how we cope as a society. We’re so used to things being predictable…
Its an unpredictable world but still there! Cheers
Cool! I have a new blogpost on RW if you’d like to check it out 🙂