Today in Trouw some useful tips to culture bringers. They are responses to the reader question a few days back, about why the halls remain empty in our museums, concert halls and theatres. Five responses are included, and each one is excellent. They also show something, and that is that the eagerness, with which the halls are filled up again by the managements, seems to be counterproductive.
After all, it is not a business as usual in the culture sector, just as it is not a business as usual is in our airline industry. There, people stand in long queues because they want to get back to the old normal, in this case a all inclusive in Thailand, but lack the staff to manage it. But where some had hoped for flight embarrassment and environmental awareness, it is completely absent. Business as usual would in all likelihood have been accompanied by flight embarrassment. Because that was the trend before corona.
We have a different daily rhythm
In the arts, there is no shame but cultural anxiety prevails, according to readers' letters in Trouw. People want to, but do not dare, or would like it to be different. One reader says he now has a different daily rhythm, and would like to go to matinees more often. Another reader misses the one-and-a-half feet in the room. Yet another is still wary of the crowds in museums and concert halls.
What the responses show is that the - often somewhat older - public does not necessarily want to participate in recouping the damage of two years of corona-lockdown and distance society as quickly as possible. And that is where the cultural sector's lobby in The Hague could do with a bit more attention.
Full halls and full pockets
After all, things are sometimes moving a little too fast now, with that payback. Because while the virus is still among us, possibly working on a dramatic comeback during or after the summer, we prefer to fill the halls to the brim again. Indeed, why not have a wider venue setup by default, with compensation from the government? Can't the lobby be about that? Why not standard service in foyers (after ordering via your mobile) to get rid of the crowding in front of the understaffed bar? Why not ask for support for that?
And then some. In that part of the sector where filling venues doesn't seem to be a problem, the pop sector, things sometimes go a little too enthusiastically too. This weekend, Paradiso Amsterdam organised a concert in an annex, which of course was heartbreaking. However, with programming as many concerts as possible in as short a time as possible, for fear of new lockdowns, something can go wrong.
Double price
This weekend, security at Kim Gordon's concert turned out to be a little too fanatical, and there was a hidden revenue model attached to toilet visits. Thus, after buying a 26-euro ticket, you also had to pay 17.50 euros for a strip of five tokens for drinks and - there's the rub - toilet visits. That cost half a token, but those tokens were thus only sold per five, with no way to exchange them back for hard cash.
Now, mostly younger than elderly audiences attend such concerts, so incontinence problems and prostate complaints will be few and far between, but one free trip to the toilet should be possible, right? Now the actual ticket price was almost doubled for that reason, and that looks very much like making money on the backs of benevolent audiences. That is very bad for the reputation, especially since this trick was not only much denounced on social media, but even made it into the newspaper, which is highly unusual among arts journalists.
It's all about the experience
As much as this is a temporary faux pas may turn out to be of the Amsterdam pop temple, it is clear that the sector as a whole needs to work much harder on the visitor experience. More service, more space, more before-and-after care, and less emphasis on money. This is difficult for an industry that has been about nothing else in recent years, but necessary.
Fewer performances, perhaps, but more service.
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