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Mon, Aug 23, 2021, 13:05
- Held in response to the recent banning of large-scale events, the protests were accompanied by soundsystems and DJ sets.
Saturday saw the Unmute Us! protests take place across the Netherlands, with around 70,000 people hitting the streets.
Unmute Us! was formed in response to the Dutch government banning large-scale events, including festivals, until at least October 31st. Protests were organised to demand that these events be permitted from September 1st.
Saturday's protests took place in Eindhoven, Groningen, Nijmegen, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. They soon began to resemble mini-festivals themselves, with large crowds gathering around soundsystems or following DJs playing out the back of trucks as they moved through the city.
Initially scheduled to run from 2 PM until 5 PM, most continued until the evening, with the Amsterdam municipality calling for no-one else to join by mid-afternoon due to overcrowding fears.
The Dutch government introduced the new restrictions in response to fears of the spread of the delta variant of the Covid-19 virus. Currently, only one-day events with a maximum of 750 visitors are allowed, with attendees requiring proof of vaccination, a recent negative test result or proof that they've recovered from the virus within the last six months.
Watch some footage from the protests.