Dutch test festivals postponed due to weather

This weekend’s Back to Live test festivals, organised by Mojo, ID&T and Fieldlab, have been postponed by a week due to forecasted adverse weather conditions.

The two music festivals – a dance music event and a rock/pop festival – were scheduled to take place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 March, respectively, on the Lowlands and Defqon 1 site in Biddinghuizen, in the central Netherlands, admitting 1,500 participants each.

Due to the organisers’ concerns that the weather would lead to atypical results, the events have been rescheduled to 20 March and 21 March.

“The [bad weather] means that Fieldlab Events expects attendance to be lower and the stay shorter”

“The combination of heavy gusts of wind, rainfall and low temperature and the concerns expressed by our visitors, mean that Fieldlab Events expects attendance to be lower and the stay shorter,” Fieldlab told Nu.nl. “This means that the results of the survey will not be representative and the visitors’ experience is far from pleasant.”

Participants were tested for Covid-19 on Thursday (11 March) and will be required to retest before next weekend’s event.

Earlier this week, the Dutch government announced that a new Covid-19 app, called CoronaCheck, will be trialled at the Back to Live pilot festivals.

The pilot festivals are the last events in the Back to Live series, which includes the recent dance event and a concert at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome last weekend.

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