Because the corona rules may offer space after February 25 for a large outdoor event or indoors with a negative test certificate, municipal rules make that impossible again.
“A permit should have been requested for such a party long ago,” says Mayor Antoin Scholten van Venlo. “A municipality needs time to properly assess an event on matters such as safety and public order. You can no longer do that for the carnival,” he responded to L1Vandaag at the press conference of Minister Ernst Kuipers.
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People at the center
According to Scholten, this does not mean that there will be no partying this year. “It will be a spontaneous carnival, perhaps a bit organized by catering or joek chapels, but without major happenings such as a Zoepkoel. This will be a carnival where people are central again.”
Dutch expression
The minister’s call not to visit large crowds during carnival is dismissed by the Venlo mayor as a ‘Dutch expression’ of someone who is not familiar with the party. “Of course that is not possible. People visit each other during carnival, you can’t stop that. But that does mean that vulnerable people have to be really careful, because they can still get quite ill. Don’t look for the crowds if you are vulnerable” , the mayor of Venlo also warned.
Reunion
Scholten could not agree with the call from mayor Depla van Breda, who is not looking for carnival tourists from above the rivers. “Carnival is a reunion after all, people come back to their own city. You shouldn’t want to stop that. What you have to be careful with is when people really start to move around. Normally people from the villages often come day in the city, and you really don’t want that this year.”