Music festivals offer to help Belgium’s vaccination campaign

BRUSSELS — With nothing on their agendas for months to come, music festival organizers in Belgium want to use their know-how to help the country’s coronavirus vaccination campaign.

The Belgian government has set a goal of vaccinating about 70% of the country’s population, about 8 million people, when approved COVID-19 vaccination shots become available.

As the vaccines are expected to arrive in multi-dose vials for shots to be administered all on the same day, Belgium health authorities are planning to vaccinate people in groups as much as possible. The task will pose many logistical challenges, including the creation of vaccination centres that festival organizers say they can help set up.

Enjoying a strong reputation in the music world, Belgian festival experts have proven experience in both building huge pop-up structures and in crowd management.

With the music industry hit hard by the pandemic’s economic, several festivals in the French-speaking region of Wallonia and the Brussels area have created a federation to better defend their interests. They have a large network of technicians who are currently unemployed and are ready to help out.

“Our sector has been at a standstill for many months, and our many staff are eager to bring their creativity and dedication to the fight against coronavirus,” said federation president Damien Dufrasne.

One of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, Belgium has reported some 577,000 confirmed cases and more than 16,500 deaths linked to the virus.

Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said COVID-19 vaccinations could start in the European Union’s 27 nations before the end of December. The commission, the EU’s executive arm, has agreements with six potential vaccine suppliers and is working on a seventh contract. The deals allow it to purchase over 1.2 billion doses, more than double the population of the EU.

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The Associated Press