COVID -19 blind festival planned
With the government allowing a gathering of only 50 people in festivals and other events, a group of local promoters have decided to disregard the arrangement by planning to host a festival with 500 people.
The festival dubbed The New Normal Festival will be held on October 31, 2020 at a secret location.
According to one of the festival organisers who asked to be anonymous, the gig is a collaborative initiative by artists and promoters in Botswana.
“We want to use it as a test instrument for safe opening of events. We will have barricaded cubicles that have 100 people each. Each cubicle will have toilets, waiters to serve people and different tags of colour codes to separate cubicles,” he said.
The source, who is renowned promoter, revealed that there would be registration at the venue entrance and temperature checks.
He added that they are not in any way rebelling against authority, but they wish for health ministry, COVID-19 task team and Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development to attend the event and give it their blessings.
“We want them to see that it is possible to have a safe event that observes COVID-19 protocols, hence we also have a camp chair policy and masks to ensure social distancing and safety. We will also have 30 minutes break to sanitise equipment and furniture in the venue and re-check temperatures,” he further revealed.
He also said the intention is to invite them officially soon.
“It is time we safely live with COVID-19 and we need to save our industry,” he highlighted.
He emphasized that they were still going ahead even without permits because they cannot wait no more. Asked if this could not endanger their patrons, especially at risk of contacting the disease, he said patrons were also part of them.
“We will deal with the law together,” he concluded.