Bars and restaurants may stay open until 02:00

Starting this weekend, the phase four easing of the opening hours will come into force

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By Bente D. Knudsen

At the press conference last Saturday, the phase four opening measures were announced by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and for the many venues, who have been closed due to the epidemic, it was bad news.

Dancing venues such as nightclubs with few seats and a dance floor are to remain closed until 31 October 2020 unless they can be transformed into a bar like setting with no dancing and more seats.

Bars and restaurants, which up to now have been able to open but with an imposed curfew at midnight, will be allowed to stay open until 02:00, however, new guests are not to be let in after 23:00. The agreement also enables local measures to more strict, and for the Aarhus nightlife, there will at present not be any easing of the midnight curfew before 4 September (all local measures in Aarhus have been prolonged until 4 September due to the local outbreak in the area).

The easing of the curfew means that, starting this weekend, a form of “nightlife” resumes in a prolonged version. How bars and restaurants will manage to keep track of which guests have been let in before 23:00 will be up to each outlet to manage.

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The restriction concerning number of people allowed to gather ( in Danish forsamlingsforbud) will remain at 100 and is prolonged until 31 October 2020, however, by the end of September, the Government will assess if it can be eased at an earlier date.

Outdoor funerals have so far been unrestricted but a new measure of attendance of maximum 200 is imposed with immediate effect.

A maximum of 500 may attend an event if they are mostly seated, this is prolonged until 31 October.

This means that a range of cultural, sports and music events and venues are highly restricted as they cannot run their business as usual.

The parties involved in the agreement regarding the opening measures will meet with the many associations concerned with this restriction to find out how events and cultural and leisure activities can be organised in a way that do not further the spread of the virus.