If you’re in the Netherlands and you were hoping to go clubbing this weekend, I can only offer you sympathy at this time. Last Friday, the current caretaker Prime Minister of the country Mark Rutte placed the country back into a lockdown of sorts – not quite the closing of whole swathes of the economy as seen before, but enough to certainly cause some ruptions.
Nightclubs must now close for three weeks at 8pm. Covid cases seem to be going up dramatically in much of mainland Europe at the moment. And whilst Britain’s numbers seem to be falling slightly right now, cases for our nearest neighbour in Ireland have increased substantially over the past month.
Which leaves me thinking it’s now a distinct possibility other countries – I include the USA in this list as well – could follow suit over the next few months. Last year, many countries had varying degrees of restrictions in place, which aren’t there anymore. But we also have a vaccine now. So the truth is no one’s quite sure what the virus will be able to do this winter.
And from what I understand, this is a thought which has crossed the minds of recent DJ agencies in days gone by as well. The fact that clubs are open again now and could be closed again with very little notice has not gone unnoticed. Which reminds me of a post from Friday with the latest words from my industry insider.
He started with the words “The pressure that DJs are under at the moment on the festival circuit is like nothing I’ve ever seen before”. He even told me that one of his friends in the DJ world recently tried to commit suicide over the relentless pressure he’s being put under from various sources to do more gigs.
Depressingly, an email arrived over the weekend from an extremely reliable source confirming at least two further attempts in recent weeks. The identities of the DJs are known to Amateur’s House and are quite well known within the dance music scene, but this blog will not be disclosing their names – for reasons I’d like to think are blindingly obvious to anyone with a brain or a conscience.
We’re heading into a winter which is possibly going to look quite unlike any we’ve ever seen before. I just hope people start to remember that in their desperate attempts to fill their coffers once more…
