Tomorrow the tent will be dismantled at the festival site: “The beer was already cold”

Everything was ready for tomorrow: the Guilty Pleasure Festival at the Gaasperplas and Electronic Picnic in Purmerend couldn’t wait to open their doors. But the government’s just announced measures put an end to the fun: “This is simply impotence.”

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Electronic Picnic organizer Glenn Beense just hangs up with the mayor. “We are defeated and in a sad mood. The telephone is of course red hot. Fortunately, the municipality sympathizes with us and they are there for us if we need help.”

Tomorrow Beense would receive 3,000 visitors at the festival site in Purmerend. “The drink was already cold, light and sound are hanging in the stage. We have to break everything down again,” he says. “You don’t want to experience that you have to cancel your festival the night before. But now it happens.”

cancel

Beense has to cancel everyone who would contribute to the festival tomorrow: artists, bar staff, security. “And later we have to see how everything can be solved. The government has indicated that there is a guarantee fund for events that cannot take place due to government decisions. We will focus on that in the coming weeks.”

The two-day Guilty Pleasure Festival at the Gaasperplas cannot take place this weekend either. “A very big downer,” said a spokesman. “We have everything ready here. This is just powerlessness.”

The site will be demolished tomorrow.

Celebrating seated

The Highly Needed Festival, which is scheduled for July 17 in De Weijver recreation park in Hoogwoud, still holds hope. “We have a plan ready for a seated festival. A maximum of 800 people will come to us, so that would just be possible as it looks now,” says organizer Robin Vreeken.

Placing tables, more security to keep people in place and a different payment system to prevent queues at the bar: that is the plan of Vreeken for Hoog Need. “We submitted it to the municipality today. They are positive about it, but say that advice from the government is leading.”

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