News

A COVID-19 spread-prevention experiment is set to take place at a 4000-capacity indoor concert next month.

The project, dubbed Restart-19, will take place at a stadium in Leipzig in August, and the experiment will cost just shy of €1million. The organisers have said that the project will help “identify a framework” for how larger events could be held “without posing a danger for the population” post-September 2020.

Volunteers, aged between 18 and 50, will attend a concert from German singer Tim Bendzko, and wear contract tracer devices that transmit data on participants movements, and proximity to others in the venue. Flourescent hand sanitizer will also be used, to identify the surfaces most likely to transmit COVID-19. Fog machines will also enable scientists to visualise the spread of coronavirus via aerosols.

Back in June, the German government announced they would commit €150 million to the country’s live music industry, as part of broader plans to kickstart the economy.

In a podcast earlier this month, a Lollapalooza co-founder predicted that large-scale, live music events won’t be back for fans until atleast 2022.

Last week a run of UK drive-in gigs were cancelled due to local coronavirus lockdown concerns, stating that the “latest developments regarding localised lockdowns mean it has become impossible for us to continue the series with any confidence.”