France: first night in a nightclub since March 2020, and those who failed without health pass

Published on : 07/10/2021 – 12:19

Nightclubs reopened on Friday July 9 in France. Ready to return to the dance floor for their first night at a club since March 2020, some had even booked, but revelers could not enter for lack of a valid health pass, a sine qua non for the reopening.

“Before, we were afraid of being failed in a box. Now we are afraid of being failed because of the health pass,” said François, 24, in Paris, in front of the Sacré.

It is the commotion outside. Laurent, 48, a senior executive, arrived before midnight to be sure of having a place among the 300 authorized people, the gauge being set at 75% of the usual capacity.

“Tonight, it’s going to be magic,” he says. “It’s like we’ve been stuck springs for a long time, and now it’s going to fail.”

But his friend Lionel does not have his health pass and cannot return. The government decided that it was necessary to present proof of complete vaccination for at least 14 days, a negative PCR or antigen test of less than 48 hours, or proof of contamination with Covid between six months and fifteen days earlier.

A tent in the street to test in 15 minutes

In practice, the matter is complicated. Security guards refuse negative test screenshots for fear of tampering. In the absence of a QR code, they ask for the email from the laboratory with the result … Thirty minutes after opening, only a few dozen customers were able to enter.

To solve the problem, while only 21% of 18-29 year olds – the preferred target of boxes – are fully vaccinated, the Sacred has had a tent set up in the street to test in 15 minutes, in partnership with a pharmacy.

These scenes were reproduced throughout France, in front of nightclubs which have effectively reopened – only 30%, according to the Minister of Health. The smaller ones often found it unnecessary to reopen at less than 100%, or preferred to keep all of their public aid.

It must be said that the reopening, so demanded by the profession which had accepted the principle of the sanitary pass, falls badly, while the very contagious variant Delta is on the verge of becoming the majority. The member of the Scientific Council, Arnaud Fontanet, repeated, Friday, the medical consensus on the closed and badly ventilated places: the discotheques are “clearly a place at risk compared to the emergence of this variant”.

Concern about a possible new turn of the screw

In Bordeaux, the public of nightclubs arrived in small groups, and it was not the crowds on big evenings.

In front of “Le Monseigneur”, where the police went to see the progress of the controls at the entrance, the five guards send lines of revelers without QR codes to the pharmacy on duty to request antigenic tests.

“It is not easy to manage,” admits the boss, Sébastien Labeyrie, “intractable” on the health pass.

Rumors are already spreading about more or less flexible nightclubs at the entrance.

In Toulouse, “Le Purple” ranks among the strictest. “We will get angry, but they will not return” without a pass, said the director, Jean-Bernard Oggero. He is also worried about a possible new turn of the screw by Emmanuel Macron on Monday. “All this waiting, the purchase of stocks of drinks … If we have to close, it will go badly”, he breathes.

With AFP