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The Distillery nightclub brings 200 lucky people back to dance for a test night in Germany

2021-06-17T14:34:15.478Z


For the first time in more than a year, the public was able to return to the track in a nightclub in Leipzig, without masks and without distancing but in reduced gauge.


Igniting the track and dancing until the end of the night for an evening, that was possible for some 200 privileged people in Germany on Saturday. The Distillery, the oldest club in eastern Germany, was able to reopen its doors for a test evening, a first in the country. Smiling from ear to ear, Philipp Kögler, a regular at the legendary techno club in Leipzig, admitted that after more than a year without a nightclub, he feels that everything has remained as before. “

Tonight, there are no rules!

It's like coming back from a week's vacation!

", He enthusiastically told AFP. He was accompanied on the track by nearly 200 other clubbers, without a mask and without distancing but in a smaller gauge, the ability toreception usually being 600 people.

An experimental evening as part of a project led by several cultural associations in Leipzig and supervised by the Saint George Clinic, the city's university hospital and the Max Planck Institute which has developed reliable, rapid and less expensive tests.

Their goal: to demonstrate that places of culture can reopen under the same conditions as before the Covid-19 pandemic, if, however, all participants test negative.

Thus, each volunteer had to register, then perform the same day an antigen test followed by a PCR test and will have to be tested again next week.

"

It brought us closer to politicians

"

Konny, another clubbeuse, hopes that the experience will be conclusive, so much she misses these evenings: “

Last summer, there were certainly parties in the open air - but it is not the same thing. Here nobody judges us, we feel safe. In a club, it's another world

”. Shouts and whistles of joy greet the music's rise to power.

The manager of the Distillery, Steffen Kache, is proud that his club is the first in Germany to reopen: "

Everyone is jealous, that's for sure

". The past year was complicated, but he recognizes a positive effect of the coronavirus crisis: “

It has brought us closer to politicians. They realized our importance

”. The Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, recently passed a law defining clubs as places of culture, which must therefore be protected. After having worked with the municipality and the regional authorities, Steffen Kache judges that this cooperation, "

unthinkable before the crisis

", has "

reconciled

" the underground culture with that of the elites.

Read also: Germany: 2.5 billion euros released for culture

The closure for more than a year of German clubs nevertheless remains a disaster for the sector.

Many places risk collapsing, warn professionals.

Especially in Berlin, European night capital, which attracted tens of thousands of young tourists from all over the world every year.

"

All this only makes sense if the next step is the general and national reopening of cultural places and clubs, without barrier gestures

", pleads Steffen Kache, who warns: "To

open and then to close would be the biggest disaster

", since according to him, the aid would only cover half of the expenses.

An observation shared by the owners of nightclubs in France, also heavily affected by the pandemic. No test evening in anticipation in France, but a reopening scheduled between the end of June and the beginning of July. The precise date should be announced by Emmanuel Macron on June 21, the day of the Music Festival.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-06-17

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