People on Wednesday drank and danced to pumping techno music in the final minutes before all bars, restaurants and cannabis “coffee shops” closed as part of a partial COVID-19 lockdown.
Many of the revelers who flocked to terrace cafes in The Hague said that they backed the measures, which took effect at 10pm, but that they wanted to party first.
“It’s the last night before the lockdown, the last time to party. It’s a special night for us,” painter and decorator Simon Karelse, 19, said in Plein, the main nightlife area.
Photo: Reuters
Karelse said that the new regulations were “good.”
“It’s also for my grandparents, so it’s important for us. I have trust in the government, they have a vision where to go and I trust them,” he said.
After months when the Netherlands apparently got away with some of Europe’s laxest regulations, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday announced that the nation would go into semi-lockdown, its strictest measures since March.
COVID-19 cases hit a record of more than 7,000 on Tuesday, making the Netherlands the nation with the third-highest infection rate compared to its population after Belgium and the Czech Republic.
In Plein, one cafe had set up a huge marquee where dozens of people, all closely packed together, jumped up and down to a thumping dance music soundtrack.
Emerging from the tent, DJ Dena, 21, said that the crowds were in high spirits because “it’s the last evening ... we have enjoyment for the last night.”
“It’s a shame ... we hope it’s just four weeks, but I have bad feelings,” he said, adding that people in creative industries “have no job left if there’s three or four weeks to survive.”
Rutte has said that the partial lockdown — under which wearing a mask has been made compulsory in indoor public spaces — would be reviewed after two weeks, but it is expected to last at least four.
As the 10pm shutoff neared on Wednesday, police trucks rolled through Plein and officers entered several bars. Two police officers on horseback also patrolled the area.
“My friend and I decided to go to the cafe to have a nice time, because we don’t know how long this will last,” said Dana Kim, 21, a South Korean design student. “There are way more people out here like us than there usually are on a Wednesday evening.”
However, Kim said that the partial lockdown was “a bit too much,” and the Netherlands’ handling of the pandemic compared unfavorably with her home nation.
“I think it could have been handled better, if they were all wearing masks in public places and all that, because in [South] Korea where I’m from, places are not closed, but we are keeping social distance and all that,” she said.
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