Hundreds of people gathered in the Belgian capital Brussels on Sunday to call for more government support for the entertainment industry that has been battered by coronavirus restrictions.

“I want to dance again” read one poster while another read “”the night must see day again.”

As in other countries, thousands of jobs are at risk because of the rules in place to prevent contagions.

“I think there are a lot of sectors that have been affected, including culture,” explained the actress Lea Brooking who was at the demo. “And we all need to work, we all need to put food on our table, to pay rent. That’s our job, like it’s the job of thousands of other people. It’s a job like any other.”

“The show must go one” was scrawled by protesters on the bottom of one statue, a reference to the fact that livelihoods are at stake.

The protest was largely peaceful though there were some scuffles and police did detain a number of people.

The leisure industry and the younger people who tend to go out most have been blamed for helping to spread COVID-19 in several countries.

Governments are in a difficult position of balancing damage to the economy with damage to people’s health.