The event took place in Münster.
Last Thursday Germany’s TakaTuka event promoters had a party featuring Gerd Janson, Steve Stix, Kai Lorenzen, and Thorsten Karger at Coconut Beach Club, while restricting the venue’s 2000 capacity down to 100.
To take further preventive measures, they drew circles that were 1.5m apart on the dancefloor for individuals to dance inside them. Also, they opened half of the venue, allowing groups to 4 people maximum and drink in their own designated areas. Social distancing markers at the bar and a plexiglass barrier around the DJ booth were also implemented. Face masks were mandatory, only allowing attendees to remove when at their allocated table. The bars were also fitted with plexiglass shields to protect staff members, and sanitizers were also freely available.
It is worth mentioning that tickets had a cost of €70, including drinks and something to eat from the venue’s in-house grill. The elevated cost of tickets is directly related to the cost of operating the venue at a reduced capacity, and it is expected to be much lower once others are allowed to have a greater number of attendees inside.
‘Whatever your take on all of this is, part of it is how to deal with it, and how to make things possible again that were taken as a given. Taking all this into account, it went really well: a bittersweet mixture of nostalgia and hope. I had fun and I hope the dancers, too. It felt like a reinsurance that it can go on in some way, shape, or form until things can get back to normal’, said Gerd Janson about playing in what might have been the first official social distancing club night in the world.
Sources also reported that Janson waived 80% of his fee and that the club did not make a profit off from the event, instead opting to send out a ‘sign of life’ for the whole electronic dance music community.
