Health official: No guarantee large RO festivals will be able to take place this summer

The large festivals announced for this year might not take place as there is no way to tell how the epidemiological situation will look like in summer, when the events are scheduled, Raed Arafat, the head of the Emergency Situations Department (DSU), told television station Antena 3.

The rules might not allow gatherings of tens of thousands of people but only 100-150 people, he explained.

“No one can guarantee, now, that these festivals will be able to take place. There are three-four festivals in one year; we cannot say at this point that they will take place,” Arafat said.

He argued that event organizers that already started selling tickets should warn the public of this possibility.

“They started announcing ticket sales, and we don’t even know how things will be like this summer; we will have again discussions, disputes; who offers compensations to those who purchased tickets, who will do this […] they need to let people know that it’s at their own risk,” he said.

In his turn, Edy Chereji, the communications director of Neversea and Untold music festivals, previously said he was worried about such comments. He pointed to the need to find solutions in an industry that has been seriously hit by the Covid-19 crisis.

“We have always been a partner for the authorities; we have followed and urged people to follow all the measures introduced in this period. We acted and act in good faith. At the same time, I don’t think it is normal that he shows no interest in the exercise of devising a set of measures that would allow the restart in the summer of this year! Let us at least try this exercise! We have been in this situation for 11 months. We are not allowed to carry out our activity but, even sadder, are there no steps forward in finding solutions to restart the cultural sector?!?” Chereji wrote in a Facebook post.

He also explained that restarting these events doesn’t mean their organizers would get rich but resuming an economic activity that is currently in collapse, involving tens of thousands of people who need to work and depend on this industry.

Both Neversea and Untold announced the dates for this year’s events and part of the lineup.

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(Photo: Catalin Grigoriu/ Dreamstime