They had put on their thirty-one for their first night in a club since March 2020, some had even booked, but revelers could not enter Friday night at the nightclub for lack of ... a valid health pass, sine qua non de reopening.

“Before, we were afraid of being failed in a club.

Now we are afraid of being failed because of the health pass, ”said François, 24, in Paris, in front of the Sacré.

It is the commotion outside.

Laurent, 48, a senior executive, arrived before midnight to be sure of having a place among the 300 authorized people, the gauge being set at 75% of the usual capacity.

“Tonight, it's going to be magic,” he says.

“It's as if we were springs stuck for a long time, and now it's going to fail.

"

But his friend Lionel does not have his health pass and cannot return.

Confusion at the entrance

The government decided that it was necessary to present proof of complete vaccination for at least 14 days, a negative PCR or antigen test of less than 48 hours, or proof of contamination with Covid between six months and fifteen days earlier.

In practice, the matter is complicated.

Security guards refuse negative test screenshots for fear of tampering.

In the absence of a QR code, they ask for the email from the laboratory with the result… Thirty minutes after opening, only a few dozen customers were able to enter.

"We don't know how long it will take, it's new for us", assures Martin Munier, the manager.

Limited reopenings

To solve the problem, while only 21% of 18-29 year-olds - the preferred target of boxes - are fully vaccinated, the Sacred has had a tent set up in the street to test in 15 minutes, in partnership with a pharmacy.

These scenes recurred throughout France, in front of nightclubs which have effectively reopened - only 30%, according to the Minister of Health.

The smaller ones often found it unnecessary to reopen at less than 100%, or preferred to keep all of their public aid.

It must be said that the reopening, so demanded by the profession which had accepted the principle of the sanitary pass, falls badly, while the very contagious variant Delta is on the way to becoming the majority.

The member of the Scientific Council Arnaud Fontanet reiterated Friday the medical consensus on the closed and badly ventilated places: the discotheques are clearly a place at risk compared to the emergence of this variant.

" The taste of life "

At the Mistral, Aix-en-Provence's historic club, entry - by reservation - is fluid, everyone has their pass and "we rediscover a taste for life", smiles Lucie, a customer.

“We're fine.

The girls are beautiful, we dance, we are free, finally free, ”says Gérard.

In Bordeaux, the public of nightclubs arrived in small groups, and it was not crowded on big evenings.

In front of Le Monseigneur, where the police went to see the progress of the controls at the entrance, the five security guards send lines of revelers without QR codes to the pharmacy on duty to request antigenic tests.

"It is not easy to manage," recognizes the boss, Sébastien Labeyrie, "intractable" on the health pass.

"There are people who said to us 'I only have one injection can I go home?'

Well no, you need both injections and 15 days apart.

It's not going to be easy tonight, but we have to get started and we're super happy to be open anyway!

"

Fear of reclosing

Rumors are already spreading about more or less flexible nightclubs at the entrance.

In Toulouse, Purple ranks among the strictest.

"We will get angry, but they will not return" without a pass, said the director, Jean-Bernard Oggero.

He is also worried about a possible new turn of the screw by Emmanuel Macron on Monday.

"All this waiting, the purchase of stocks of drinks ... If we have to close, it will go badly", he breathes.

The inevitable happens a few minutes later: Lou Busby, a 24-year-old dental assistant, is turned away from Purple.

She and her friends have it all wrong: her second dose was less than 14 days old, and her three friends took their test on Wednesday, so outside the 48-hour window.

"I want to cry, I'm disgusted," said the young woman.

"We'll go to a bar, too bad".

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