Plan:et C Alpha is over and many had a memorable time …
Despite Corona, we were able to celebrate a festival as we know and love it. At least after the test situation was over. We looked into smiling faces, we finally felt the bass together again, we inaugurated the new Turm Bühne, danced endlessly and looked over the festival site from the top of the hangars at sunrise.
Nevertheless, after this weekend we have to say: We have put some guests through unreasonable hardships and we have stretched some of our crews way beyond the limit.
Let us start with the good news:
The swabbing of so many people worked great. The lab on which everything hung did an incredible job. The 21-member team ran 11,000 tests in 24 hours and worked around the clock to make the festival happen.
We had 14 positive PCR test results over the entire period. Nine of these tests were classified as recovered and "non-infectious" by doctors as well as the health and safety department during post-testing. Only five tests were classified as "infectious" and were cared for and supported by our quarantine team.
The reasons why the test situation was bumpy:
First of all, it was of course a new situation for us to PCR test more than 11,000 people in such a short time. We have never done this before and things that do not work well always stand out the first time. But we do not want to excuse ourselves by saying that it was a premiere.
One of the reasons for the delays was that we had a power cut in the lab, which interrupted the PCR machines. This set us back by about three hours.
Another reason was that the wave of arrivals did not really start rolling in from Friday morning, as expected, but only from midday onwards, and the laboratory could hardly process any tests until then. This then led to a traffic jam for samples in the afternoon and evening.
In addition, there were problems in the procedures. These led, for example, to the fact that the tests sometimes did not arrive chronologically in the lab and this created the situation that some people, although they arrived at the same time, were able to enter the festival site at very different times. We are sorry to have put you in such an annoying situation.
Furthermore, we calculated the time needed between the swab test and the test result too short. The expected horizon of three hours could not be kept, which rightly so frustrated many. We would like to apologise for this. Better communication would also have saved you much trouble.
We attach great importance to data protection and so health data and personal ticket data are completely separated from each other. This meant that it was not possible to send notifications via text message or email without overturning this secure and good data protection concept. For the Beta, we are working on a solution that will allow visitors to check their test results on their own mobile phones. With this solution, we hope to make the process much simpler.
We have been working hard since Saturday to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Alpha and to avoid stress, anger and disappointment. Even though this will not help you now, we hope for your understanding and that you had a good time at Plan:et C Alpha.
We would like to thank the crew who did an incredible job. More than 200 people were busy making sure that everyone was tested and safely on site. There were 87 people working on the swab tests alone, nine doctors analysing the test results, 21 lab technicians pipetting in the lab and operating the machines, a quarantine crew of 21 people taking care of the people with positive results, 57 people solving problems in the Botschaft, 31 people putting festival wristbands on, and of course the Security, the IT and the data protection team doing everything to make it happen as fast as possible.
We would like to thank you all for being so incredibly patient and understanding of the special situation. We also thank you for your constructive and supportive criticism, which is now being incorporated into the improvements. If you have any further suggestions or criticism, please write to us at alpha@kulturkosmos.de.
We hope you had a lot of fun in the end. In the sun. With the bass. Barefoot on the dance floor. With a smile on your face. Despite everything.
You are wonderful and we are now working on making the entrance to the garden at Beta faster for everyone.
