The coronavirus pandemic has paralyzed the event industry in Germany. Culture and sport are desperately looking for solutions. A large-scale test in Leipzig should now show how great the risks really are. For Tim Bendzko, the 1400 audience members in the Arena Leipzig are all world saviors. "Thank you all for being here and helping us to return to normality as quickly as possible," the 35-year-old pop star calls out to the audience. His fans are all test subjects this Saturday. The Bendzko concert is an experiment by Halle University Hospital. The infectiologists want to find out how high the risk of a corona outbreak is after major events. While Bendzko sings, the researchers collect a large amount of data.

"It's about an evidence-based approach," said Michael Gekle, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Halle, explaining the concept behind the coronavirus concert. Major events are still prohibited in Germany until at least the end of October due to the pandemic. This affects culture, but also sport. Gekle and his researchers are looking for ways to get away from this blanket ban.

It was right to shut down social life in March and April, said Gekle. But now it's about acting in a "risk-adapted" way. Data is needed for this. "If you are asked now: What risk is there in an event like this - then nobody knows," said Gekle.

The experiment began on Saturday morning with an elaborate check-in. All participants had their temperature taken before entering the hall. They were also fitted with contact tracers to register their contacts. Sensors tracked their routes. Fluorescent disinfectant was used to make visible which surfaces were touched particularly often. The flight of aerosols - tiny particles in the air that can carry the virus - was also to be tracked.

Three concert situations were simulated on Saturday for the "Restart-19" study: One as before the start of the corona crisis, one with slightly more seating distance between the audience and one with a distance of 1.50 meters between people. "We are investigating risk constellations," said study leader Stefan Moritz. He expects the first results in six to eight weeks.

The researchers had actually hoped for around 4,200 voluntary participants. In the end, only a third did. It is possible that the vacation season in Saxony and the renewed rise in infection figures in Germany contributed to the fact that the targeted numbers were not reached, said study leader Stefan Moritz. However, valid data could also be generated with the 1,400 test subjects. "We have good data quality."

Among those who spent their entire Saturday at Arena Leipzig were Kathleen (36) and Felix (37). They had come to Leipzig from Görlitz on the Polish border for the study. "We're actually not here for the music," said Felix. They wanted to help find out how cultural events could be possible again. The day was exhausting. All participants in the heated hall had to wear FFP2 masks. A coronavirus self-test was also compulsory. According to Moritz, a test carried out by a woman returning from vacation had turned out positive beforehand.

According to Halle University Hospital, the large-scale trial cost around one million euros. It was financed by the states of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. According to study leader Moritz, there are now three other international research teams in Australia, Belgium and Denmark who are planning similar experiments. That was also one of the aims - to provide an impetus for more research into major events.

Pop star Bendzko drew a positive conclusion at the end of the concert experiment. He had expected the whole thing to feel a little more sterile and more like an experimental set-up. "But we really enjoyed it. We survived drive-in concerts in the summer. In that respect, this is the first step towards normality for us today."