More than 150,000 protesters marched through ten different Dutch cities on Saturday (11th)—largely in Amsterdam—demanding that national and local government allow music festivals to go ahead and that nightclubs reopen!
The peaceful protest, for what was essentially a street party, started and finished at Westerpark in Amsterdam, running through the afternoon from 2pm – 5pm.
The first protest (which was dubbed as ‘’Unmute Us’’) took place three weeks earlier on the 21st August, and came after the Dutch government announced an extension to the ban on music festivals until at least the middle of September, and that nightclubs would remain closed until November.
With large-scale sporting events like the Formula 1 and soccer games already taking place in the Netherlands, the argument is that there are no more excuses to still ban larger music events.
Regarding this, organisers have previously said: “We are rapidly heading for a vaccination rate of 85% of the adult population and by September 1st anyone who wants to can be vaccinated. If events at the peak of vaccination rates still can’t take place, when can they?” (UnMute Us website).
The numbers from yesterday we’re approximately double what they were three weeks ago, with only 70,000 protesters out in force last time across six cities. People of all ages showed up, which for the most part included festival organisers, nightclub workers, and people that just want to dance again.
Both of the protests are backed by over 350 organisations from the Dutch event industry, which includes organisers of electronic music festivals such as Awakenings, Mysteryland, A State Of Trance and others. Visit UnmuteUs.com.
Image credit: Mysteryland Facebook page
