Dancing, drinking and cheering were the order of the day at the first legal dance event in the Netherlands in almost a year, as government-backed experiments continue to decide how events can be organised safety during the pandemic.

In total 1,300 people won tickets for the event, which featured Sam Feldt, and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, on Saturday afternoon. The Ziggo Dome has normal capacity for 17,000 and 100,000 people had applied for tickets.

It is almost a year ago that events for over 100 people were banned, as coronavirus spread throughout the country. ‘It is so fantastic to be here with everyone,’ one reveller said. ‘It all felt a little awkward at the beginning, but then everyone went wild.’

Organisers Mojo en ID&T described the dance party as ‘historic’. ‘Hopefully this is the key to allow more things to open,’ ID&T’s chief operations officer Rosanne Janmaat told broadcaster RTL.

‘We’ve shown that we can organise an event very safely,’ said Mojo’s chief executive Ruben Brouwer. ‘We’re learning a lot from this event, but it is even more important that we can continue.’

Fans! #backtolive Welkom! pic.twitter.com/kRss5udHsE

— Ziggo Dome (@ZiggoDome) March 6, 2021

Bubbles

Ticket holders were divided into five groups, or bubbles, of 250 people, each with different rules and all equipped with sensors to monitor how much contact they had with others.

Some had to wear a face mask, while others were encouraged to shout and cheer as much as possible. The experiment also involved monitoring how much saliva people spat out as they sang, using coloured liquids.

Everyone had to hand over a negative test result ahead of the event, and will be tested again in five days time. The organisers also ran spot checks using fast tests at the door.

Fieldlab has already run experiments involving a conference, a football match and a theatre show. Although a handful of attendees have tested positive for coronavirus since, there is no evidence so far that they picked up the virus during the events.