For Breda Barst it is on or under on September 15 and 16. The free pop festival was spoiled by heavy rainfall last year and had to be saved financially by sponsors and crowdfunding campaigns. That turned out to be insufficient and a loan from a few loyal visitors has only now really saved Breda Barst. Although everything remains fragile: “Please let the sun shine, otherwise it will still be finished in this form.”
Written by
Ronald Strater
There is a lot of stuff in the Breda Barst warehouse. They are mainly set pieces from previous editions of the festival. It’s a mess, but the volunteers know where everything is. Well, almost then…
“We’ve been looking for a tent pole for two days,” says volunteer Babs Verstrepen, sniffing between a giant wasp, a disco ball and a drum set. “After all the misery of last time, most of the stuff was quickly put somewhere.”
“Luckily we were able to borrow money from people with a big heart for Breda Barst.”
She can smile again, but how different it was last year. Due to abundant rainfall, the organization had to incur enormous costs during the festival to drain the excess water in the Valkenberg Park. In addition, only 25,000 visitors showed up instead of the usual 35,000. The result was a major financial problem.
“The whole summer was beautiful and it is precisely on our weekend that it starts to rain very, very hard,” says Babs. “As a result, we made 20 percent too little turnover and that was a drama for our budget. We were short of money.”
Things were about to collapse, but Breda Barst was saved by extra sponsor gifts, some delayed subsidy and various donation campaigns. The collected 50,000 euros seemed to be enough, the organization initially reported, but after some calculations it turned out that this was not entirely correct.
“Breda Barst can still continue this year, because we were able to borrow money from people with a big heart for our festival. This is necessary because we do not have any income yet, but we do have to pay in advance for the stages and things like that. “
“A lot of beers have to be sold.”
Breda Barst is very happy with the lenders, without them it would have been a very difficult story. But borrowed money must of course be repaid and the organization is mainly dependent on the income from the bar turnover.
“I’m not going to name exact amounts,” says Babs, “but it’s about tens of thousands of euros that have to be repaid. So a lot of beers have to be sold. I’m not worried about the festival, it’s rock solid again, but as far as the weather is concerned, it’s make or break.”
Heavy rain or thunderstorms can again spell disaster. “I sometimes sleep less because of it,” says Babs honestly. “Please let the sun shine, otherwise Breda Barst will be the end of the story in this form.”
“We have to build the set with the stuff we already have.”
Also thanks to the many volunteers, the great strength of Breda Barst, the 23rd edition is approaching. Even if it is sometimes a bit difficult. Thalassa is busy with the decor: “Because there is no money, we have to be resourceful and build new things with things we already have. But we already did recycling, because we also want to be sustainable.”
So if Babs now also finds the tent poles, there will be another super cool 26th edition of Breda Barst on September 15 and 16 with a nice programming. But rain is out of the question this time.
The volunteers of Breda Barst make the set pieces for the festival themselves.
2023-09-01 19:01:03
#good #weather #save #free #pop #festival
