The A State Of Trance (ASOT) 1000 celebration in Utrecht, Holland has once again been postponed. The event will now take place March 3-4, 2023.
The event was already postponed once before from September 3-4, 2021 to February 18-19, 2022 because of rising COVID-19 infections. This latest postponement comes after the Dutch government implemented another extension of closures to cultural venues.
ASOT leader Armin Van Buuren took to social media to personally announce the postponement:
“With the current situation, we feel that it’s not responsible to organize episode 1000, the celebration weekend, in February 2022 with the health and safety of our fans staff, and artists on the line,” Van Buuren said in his address.
The country recently implemented a very strict lockdown through December after a wave of the Delta variant. Following nationwide protests on the matter, the government allowed the reopening of non-essential stores such as hairdressers, beauty salons, and other service providers, but cultural venues (like those that would house large-scale music events) will remain closed until at least Tuesday, January 25.
January 25 would be just under one month from the dates for ASOT 1000 Utrecht. Such proximity leaves too much up to chance in terms of infection rates and hospital capacity, especially given that large events like ASOT 1000 can lead to hundreds of new infections.
Watch the full address from Armin Van Buuren below. In the video, he states that all the other A State Of Trance 1000 celebrations will continue as planned. This includes Krakow, Poland on March 12 and Los Angeles, California on April 9.
Last night, the Dutch Government has extended the covid measures. Therefore, it is with deep sadness that we have decided to postpone the ASOT Celebration Weekend to 3 & 4 March 2023, in Jaarbeurs Utrecht.
Read more: https://t.co/4yV3gW3etg @arminvanbuuren #ASOT1000 #ASOTNL pic.twitter.com/kGsCuLa7ji
— A State of Trance (@asot) January 15, 2022
Featured image by Rukes
