The National Security Council of Belgium has decided it won’t allow mass events such as music festivals until the 31st of August. Meanwhile, current restrictions are prolonged until the 3rd of May.
So no Tomorrowland, no Rock Werchter, no Pukkelpop, … but also no Antwerp Pride, no Belgian Pride and no Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix.
What are the options?
Option 1. Just cancel already. Forget 2020 and hope 2021 will be somewhat normal. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published a study in Science Magazine projecting social distancing until 2022 and even 2024!
Option 2: Postpone. But when? Calendars are full already. You can’t cramp half a year in an already busy other half a year. Can Antwerp, Brussels and Spa-Francorchamps cope?
Option 3. Grand Prix behind closed doors for F1 and only small, spread out events for the Belgian Pride and Antwerp Pride. Zwolle Pride in The Netherlands is opting for this avenue. Think out of the box. Go digital. Stream debates about the future of pride and SOGIE issues. SOGIE stands for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Stream the party’s.
Organising committees have their work cut out.
What would you suggest of the 3? I’m going with 1. The financial losses will be huge, of course, but I personally think human life is more valuable.
Why not first try and find alternatives? As already deejays stream their sets, people podcast, broadcast.
Maybe something can be done that way?
Not obviously getting together closely will be quite impossible.
As for the Grand Prix. Maybe without public. The GP is scheduled for the end of August. Maybe the situation is better then?
Fair points. It’s such a mess. I hope that things return to normal sooner than later.
In Belgium we’re a month in the ‘lockdown light’. Everyone who reads in a bit on the subject realizes we’ll have to live with some restrictions for quite a while. So events further away in time do have the time to get creative. At least try.
Yes, that makes sense. I hope it works out!
I hope so too.