“It was a super cool evening,” says a visitor to the Latino Gang Festival in Breda. “But suddenly the atmosphere changed.” During an argument after the event, several shots were fired on Friday evening. Two people were injured as a result, the gunman – a 21-year-old man from Krimpen aan den IJssel – was arrested a little later.
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So for a long time there was no problem at all at the festival at Breepark, says the visitor*. “The music was great, I can’t say anything about that.” According to her, there were a few things to criticize about the organization. “You could hardly get a drink and going to the bathroom was almost impossible.”
Yet another problem eventually caused the mood to change. “The program ran very long. Everyone was waiting for the last artist of the evening, but then suddenly the closing fireworks show started. And then a man from the organization came on stage.”
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“My girlfriend and I looked at each other and thought: we’ll screw it up soon.”
He had bad news. “He told them to stop. Because of the permit, the festival was not allowed to continue until later.” That message caused a lot of frustration in the audience. “People started throwing bottles. My girlfriend and I looked at each other and thought: we’ll sew it up soon.”
About five minutes later they got into the car to leave, but it was not easy. “Because everyone had to leave in one fell swoop, it came to a complete standstill.” And then it all went wrong. “We suddenly saw a lot of people running away. And not much later, a lot of police cars and an ambulance stopped about a hundred meters away.”
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“It was one big chaos.”
The visitor and her friend did not get much information about what exactly happened there. “We only saw the videos of the fight later. We also did not hear the shots. We had deliberately turned on the music loudly and locked the doors. It was one big chaos, and I wanted to get as little of that as possible.”
A day later, the fear is still there. “Whether I go back to this festival next year? Absolutely not. And this weekend there is nothing more on the schedule. I have finished the festival for a while.”
Below are two posts on Instagram, showing the chaos. The shots are clearly audible in the second video.
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* The name of the visitor is known to the editors.
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