BRUSSELS – In a April Fool’s joke that went wrong, a fake ad for a music festival helped thousands to gather in a large park in Brussels on Thursday, defying Covid-19 restrictions. While the police faced the crowd, several policemen and participants were injured and four people were arrested.
The exceptionally warm climate in the city probably would have attracted more people to the park, but the catch increased the density. The level of frustration, especially among young people, is high in Belgium, as new cases of Covid-19 are on the rise and hospitals are saturated despite months of restrictions.
The hoax festival, announced on Facebook and called “La Boum”, a French slang for partying, promised the appearance of famous DJs, including David Guetta, and claimed that no coronavirus rules would be followed.
The organizers noted that the festival was a joke, but according to the police, 1,500 to 2,000 people still gathered in the park, Bois de la Cambre, on Thursday afternoon, after tens of thousands of people registered on Facebook the your interest in the event. Despite several warnings, the police said, participants refused to leave and some shouted “Freedom!” and threw bottles. The police used water cannons and sent mounted police to disperse the crowd.
Belgium has been on a semi-blocking regime since October, with restaurants and bars closed, and rules requiring residents to work from home and limiting social contacts to one person per family. Up to four people can meet outside, as long as they wear masks and respect the rules of social distance. Last week, in response to an increasing number of new cases and an increase in the number of hospitalized patients, the Belgian authorities tightened the rules, ordering the closure of hairdressers and beauty salons and allowing non-essential stores to serve customers only on time checked.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo posted on Twitter that the meeting in Brussels was “totally unacceptable”.
“All the support for the injured police,” he added. “I understand that everyone is tired of corona. But rules exist for a reason and are mandatory for everyone. Hospitals are filling up. Solidarity is now the key to freedom tomorrow. “
Annelies Verlinden, the Belgian interior minister, acknowledged that “for many people, especially young people, the Covid crisis has been going on for a long time”. But she said the meeting in Brussels was “a slap in the face for all those who are doing their best to respect the measures of the coronavirus”.
On Wednesday, a Brussels court ordered the Belgian government to lift all Covid-19 restrictions, ruling that the measures had no legal basis because they were instituted by ministerial decrees. But the court has given the government 30 days to remedy the situation, and a special pandemic law is being debated in Parliament.