Europe’s confounding backslide into fear is prompting a major backlash. Just days after the Dutch government announced it would reimpose some COVID restrictions in the wake of rising cases, a slew of festival groups are suing the government. A hearing will take place July 16 at the court in The Hague.
ID&T is a well-known festival brand behind festivals such as Mysteryland, Sensation, and formerly Tomorrowland. ID&T announced that it will initiate summary proceedings against the Dutch government along with 30 other organizations such as the organizers behind F1 Dutch Grand Prix, DGTL, and Don’t Let Daddy Know.
The reason is that the Dutch government lifted restrictions and gave the go-ahead to these festivals, and now the government is pulling the rug out from all of them. The new restrictions mean until August 13 all visitors must stay seated and there are new capacity limits. The CEO of ID&T had this to say
We are overwhelmed by the support we received from our visitors, artists and partners in the past days. The fact that so many parties in the market are joining us reflects perfectly what the impact is on the entire public events industry.“
Ritty van Straalen – CEO of ID&T
The Managing Director of F1 Grand Prix Zandvoort had this to say:
As a large-scale sports event, we deal with a long lead time and large financial risks. For us it is also inexplicable internationally to not have clarity of the conditions under which we can organize the event three weeks prior to the event. It’s even more disappointing that, despite the good work of Fieldlab Events and the high vaccination rate the Netherlands has achieved, we may not be able to make the event a huge success with the whole world watching.“
Imre van Leeuwen – F1 Dutch Grand Prix Zandvoort
Parties that have joined the lawsuit are: 24-uurs Solexrace, 4PM Entertainment, A Venue Events, Absolutely Fresh, Apenkooi, Apex Event Productions, BeetjeDansen Events, BZB, Chasing the Hihat, De Wijze Uil, E&A, Elevations Events, Feestfabriek, First Vision, HockeyLoverz, Intents Events, Life Over Future, Minority Events, Nomads, One of the Guys, Par-T, Paaspop, Rebirth Events, Rotterdam Dance Parade, Sensation Events, Sportvibes, Thuishaven Events, Toffler, Trees of Live, UDC, and ZeeZout.
