Music
08 Mar 21

1,300 music fans take part in Covid-19 study in Amsterdam

Participants in the study danced to sets by Sam Feldt, Lady Bee and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano on Saturday.

In the midst of the ongoing lockdown in the Netherlands, the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam opened up its dancefloor once again over the weekend – to allow 1,300 people to take part in a study examining the risks of reopening clubs and other live events.

According to The Guardian, participants were divided into five bubbles of 250 people, and one of 50, with each bubble complying with different rules. Some participants' movements on the dancefloor were restricted with socially distancing guidelines. Some were asked to wear masks at all times, while others were asked to wear masks only when moving through the dancefloor.

One group was reportedly given "a fluorescent drink", to examine how much saliva was released when singing or screaming along to the music. Dutch DJs Sam Feldt, Lady Bee and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano all performed sets over the four-hour event.

Wow this evening felt so great! it’s been a whole year since our last performance with a live audience. How we missed this!💥❤️ pic.twitter.com/4rinFVuT1X

— Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano (@SJ_RM) March 6, 2021

The Ziggo Dome is Amsterdam's biggest music venue – with a pre-lockdown capacity of 17,000.

“We hope this can lead to a tailor-made reopening of venues," Tim Boersma of Fieldlab Events, who carried out the research, told The Guardian. "Measures are now generic, allowing for instance a maximum of 100 guests at any event if coronavirus infections drop to a certain level. We hope for more specific measures, such as allowing the Ziggo Dome to open at half its capacity.”

Fieldlab has previously run experiments involving participants attending a trial conference, football match and theatre show.

DutchNews.nl reports that 100,000 people applied for tickets to participate in the study – which took place almost a year to the day that large events in the Netherlands were banned due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A second event took place the following night, on Sunday, featuring a live performance by André Hazes jr.