Last Saturday, over 70,000 people in the Netherlands attended the Unmute Us! marches in protest of the Dutch government’s decision to ban large-scale events and festivals until October 31st at the earliest.
The Unmute Us! marches saw tens of thousands of people marching in many cities across the Netherlands including Amsterdam, Groningen, Nijmegen, Utrecht and Rotterdam. The organization’s goal is to get the ban on large-scale events lifted by September 1st, with the argument that the country is on pace to reach its target vaccination rate of 85% by that date.
Originally scheduled for 2:00PM-5:00PM, marches in many of the cities continued on into the night, essentially becoming their own large-scale gatherings complete with sound systems and dancing. Techno producer and DJ Joris Voorn tweeted a video of a festival-like crowd atmosphere as he performed at the Amsterdam demonstration. By mid-afternoon, the Amsterdam municipality called for no more attendees to join, fearing overcrowding.
I think we made ourselves heard quite well!@awakenings #unmuteus#unmuteus #awakenings #techno #ansterdam #parade #technoparade pic.twitter.com/uy5otH3089
— Joris Voorn (@jorisvoorn) August 22, 2021
Other videos and photos with similar themes spread via Twitter on Saturday, showing support for the protests and displaying the massive scale of the demonstrations across the country.
We support today’s #UnmuteUs marches across the Netherlands. After months of being misled by the Dutch government, there is still no clear plan of when our beloved industry can open again. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/D95IKElhtN
— Lucas & Steve (@lucasandsteve) August 21, 2021
August 21 2021 – #UnmuteUs demonstration Netherlands ??#Netherlands #Corona #JustSayNo #UnitedNonCompliance #Demonstration #Amsterdam #Wappies #StopTheLockdown #HealthPass #Coax #NL #FuckCovid #OngevaccineerdenClub #IkPrikHetNiet #IkPrikNiet #StopMetTesten #Mars #Demo pic.twitter.com/FgliZUzuPK
— Jake ? (?% Follow Back) (@jake_though) August 21, 2021
The Dutch government has shown no intention of reversing the current guidelines since the protests. As it stands at the time of writing, only one-day events with a capacity of 750 people are allowed, with attendees required to present proof of vaccination, a recent negative PCR test result, or proof of antibodies within the past six months.
