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Luciano on DJing after lockdown: "Dancing together is like a religious act"

The Chilean-Swiss DJ says he feels "a lot of gratitude" after beginning to play small parties again

Luciano has been playing intimate shows in his home country of Switzerland.

Clubs with a capacity of up to 1000 people are currently able to open in Switzerland and the Cadenza main man has wasted no time in getting into the booth (in a very responsible manner, of course).

Countries like the Netherlands are slowly relaxing restrictions on venues and nightclubs, but not to the extent that Switzerland has. It's one of the few European countries to allow such a large amount of people to re-enter clubs.

We caught up with Luciano to talk about the experience of DJing and clubbing again post lockdown and his thoughts on how the situation is going to progress.

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You've just played to some super intimate crowds in Switzerland. First of all, how did it feel?

Actually It has been a very difficult time for the entire world to go through this COVID-19 situation. So first of all I feel a lot of gratitude and I am aware that we are very lucky to have experienced it here in Switzerland. I trust our government and they have, in my opinion, handle the situation well. Today we are in a new phase, groups of up to 1000 people are accepted. But last week it was still up to 300 people and that's why I played in a very intimate atmosphere. It was magic and I think everyone loved it, to finally find each other again... Human beings need to be with others and dancing together is like a religious act.

These are the first parties after a while. What was the atmosphere like?

We could feel lot of joy in the air! People were very happy to dance, we could feel a lot of energy in the club!

There were no social distancing rules, but were people interacting differently anyway?

Actually as it was only 300 people per club until midnight and everybody had to leave their details so they can be contacted if needed. The dancefloor wasn’t packed so there were a little more space in between the people.. But no, people weren’t at all interacting differently, they were acting normally. They were having fun

Will you be playing more shows like this?

As in Switzerland is permitted, yes! We will release the info soon in my social channels.

Do you think small parties are the way clubs are going to get back into business?

It’s seems that this is the way we should do it.

How do you think the nightclub industry should adapt to overcome COVID-19?

Each country is completely different: each has its own health system, economy and different culture. It is not possible to put the same rules for all. I truly believe that each country must assess all of its factors and find the best solutions. It is not easy and I could not say how to do it because there are too many variants to take into account. The most important thing is that those involved in these decisions can have access to important information on COVID-19. Depending on their situation, the measures to be taken must be thought out and then put into practice by the population. Information sharing remains essential.

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