Ten months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), the pace of mass vaccination has given event organizers in the Netherlands a light at the end of the tunnel. The team behind Dutch drum and bass brand Liquicity have shared that the government expects festivals are expected to resume by July 1st, 2021.
“Great news: the Dutch government has announced that they aim to allow festivals after July 1st!” reads a statement on the Liquicity website. “In case festivals still get canceled due to changing COVID-19 circumstances, organizers are likely to be compensated for the costs. Festivals in the Netherlands are currently selling out in record pace due to this new government announcement.”
The statement goes on to introduce a warranty program in which full refunds are offered in the event that Liquicity 2021 is canceled. Attendees can also get their money back by May 16th if they simply don’t feel comfortable attending, with the option to sell or trade their tickets if they make the decision after that date.
Awakenings, meanwhile, wasn’t so lucky. The techno/house festival would have taken place June 26th-27th – missing the cutoff by mere days. At the end of January, they announced plans to postpone their 2021 gathering from June 26th and 27th to September 11th and 12th.
Elsewhere in the world, the slow pace of vaccination has made for a repeat of the festival collapse that defined 2020 for much of the music world. Ultra Music Festival, Coachella and Glastonbury are among the larger gatherings to postpone events on account of the pandemic.
At the time of writing, the WHO reports 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Netherlands with over 14,000 resulting deaths.
