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Festivals plan for corona-filled future in Denmark

Luke Roberts
October 16th, 2020


This article is more than 4 years old.

Thousands of people drinking and dancing in a field probably seems far removed from our current reality, but the wheels are already in motion to bring them back next summer …

Looking less likely by the minute (photo: Felipe Trucco)

After coronavirus ruined the party this year, many festivals are putting together elaborate plans to mass-test festival-goers next year so that they can go ahead regardless of the pandemic’s state. For the plans to work, organisers will need political support.

Worst case scenario
In announcements on their websites, Roskilde Festival, Northside and Smukfest all announced that preparations for events next year were already well under way.

Talking to TV2, Smukfest spokesperson Søren Eskildsen sounded hopeful: “The best result, of course, is that it all goes away. But we are doing everything we can to hold a festival in 2021 – even with corona among us.”

Big bubbles 
One solution being thrown about is the introduction of ‘test bubbles’.

In practice, this would mean that entry to the festival would require a negative COVID-19 test, with intensive infection detection then taking place once the festival is underway.

But not everyone is convinced by the plan.

“It requires some technology development, and then there’s a very short time to put something in place,” Hans Jørn Kolmos, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Southern Denmark, told TV2.

“So immediately I am probably a little bit sceptical.”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”