The first indoor dance event since the beginning of the pandemic took place in a major concert venue in the Netherlands. Eminent DJs Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, Sam Feldt, Lucas & Steve and Lady Bee performed at one of the experimental coronavirus-proof trial concerts inside the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam.

On Saturday, March 6, Back to Live Dance Event, an experimental concert took place at the Ziggo Dome, organized by Mojo, ID&T and Fieldlab Evenementen, one of eight experimental events. Other events in the series have included a conference, a theatre performance and a football match. This dance event was one of two large-scale events designed for audiences of 1.300 people.

Audience divided into separate bubbles

At the event on Saturday, the attendees were divided into different “bubbles” of 250 people, as well as one bubble of 50 people, with different coronavirus rules per bubble. The bubbles were as follows:

• a grandstand where everyone had to stay seated for the whole concert
• a grandstand in which people could dance but had to stay near their assigned seats
• a VIP area in the third grandstand with 50 people moving around freely
• a fixed standing area in the stalls
• another standing area in the stalls with three people allowed per square metre 
• another group of people in the stalls with slightly more space to move

Additionally, in certain bubbles, masks were obligatory, whereas, in others, audience members were encouraged to cheer as much as possible.

Testing at the trial concert

Fieldlab arranged to have saliva samples and particles in the air tested, as well as random temperature checks amongst attendees. Visitors were fitted with motion sensors so that contact between people at the event could be evaluated. All attendees had obligatory coronavirus tests carried out before the event and they will be tested again, now that the event has taken place.

Fieldlab aims to have the outcome of the testing ready within three weeks of each of the experimental events. It is therefore still too early to ascertain whether any attendees were infected with coronavirus at the event.

The first large DJ event in almost a year

Dance fans were clearly eager to get back to attending live events: the tickets sold out within 20 minutes of going on sale!

It was a year since most DJs have been in front of a large audience. DJ Sam Feldt, who performed on Saturday said “I see light at the end of the tunnel again. We have been in it for about a year now and with the vaccinations, the testing possibilities and these kinds of test events, I think there are a lot of signs that we will hopefully see some more parties in the summer."