After coronavirus ruined the party this year, many festivals are putting together elaborate plans to mass-test festival-goers next year so that they can go ahead regardless of the pandemic’s state. For the plans to work, organisers will need political support.

Worst case scenario
In announcements on their websites, Roskilde Festival, Northside and Smukfest all announced that preparations for events next year were already well under way.

Talking to TV2, Smukfest spokesperson Søren Eskildsen sounded hopeful: “The best result, of course, is that it all goes away. But we are doing everything we can to hold a festival in 2021 – even with corona among us.”

Big bubbles 
One solution being thrown about is the introduction of ‘test bubbles’.

In practice, this would mean that entry to the festival would require a negative COVID-19 test, with intensive infection detection then taking place once the festival is underway.

But not everyone is convinced by the plan.

“It requires some technology development, and then there’s a very short time to put something in place,” Hans Jørn Kolmos, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Southern Denmark, told TV2.

“So immediately I am probably a little bit sceptical.”