“Liberation Festivals in the Netherlands face financial losses and uncertain future due to bad weather”

It remains to be seen whether the fourteen Liberation Festivals in the Netherlands have survived yesterday’s editions, which were ravaged by bad weather, financially.

Particularly in the east and north of the country, where the festivals were temporarily halted due to an imminent storm, the number of visitors and the turnover of consumptions fell short of expectations. The organizers are now considering the future.

“A wise decision”, thought Ebel Jan van Dijk, director of the Liberation Festival in Groningen. When a number of heavy rain showers descended on his town yesterday afternoon, he halted the festival for a few hours.

He was lucky, because the crowd returned en masse when the sun broke through again around 6:30 p.m. They were less fortunate at the Liberation Festival in Roermond. Only a few remained there after two showers diehards behind.

In the end it became even busier in the evening, but the question is whether those people consumed enough to get around the budget. “We are going to make a loss anyway because of this,” the organization says 1Limburg.

And so the organizers of the festivals have another problem. Never before have the Liberation Festivals had it as difficult (financially) as this year. There are many reasons for that. Just about all costs have risen by an average of 30 percent for hiring stage builders or security, for example. The energy bill is also higher.

In Utrecht, it even seemed for a long time that the festival would not take place at all for the first time since 1993, until a large beer brewer and a private investment fund stepped in to help in February.

In Haarlem, the birthplace of all Liberation Festivals, chairman Bernt Schneiders approached the city council for support and to negotiate the tens of thousands of euros that the festival must contribute annually to the cleaning costs afterwards. In Roermond it (also) only just managed to get the budget round, by booking less expensive artists.

So emergency measures were enough, until the showers came. The effects of all the wetness were immediately noticeable. In Utrecht, for example, the number of visitors lagged considerably behind that of last year; 27,000 people instead of last year’s 37,000, writes RTV Utrecht.

In Groningen, the festival was halted for more than two hours due to heavy rain. “You end up in a mode of uncertainty and in which you have to arrange an awful lot,” director Van Dijk looks back RTV North. “But actually we have always had the confidence that we could open again.”

He was right. After the resumption, many came back and many new visitors joined. “Last night the field was completely full and we were able to experience a wonderful evening,” says Van Dijk. Around midnight, visitors were surprised with an unexpected performance by the popular Groningen rapper Kraantje Pappie.

In Roermond it seemed to be over and out after two showers. “The band really had to get off the stage. Water and equipment is irresponsible. Not an ideal combination,” says festival chairman Rob Vossen.

The audience tried to hide, but it wasn’t that easy. Vossen: “We have three mega umbrellas here, thousands of people stood under them, crammed together. But not everyone fit under the umbrellas.”

He has yet to draw up the bill, but fears substantial losses. “Because of the two storms and the people who left as a result, we will never make it in terms of turnover to make it a financial success anyway. Fewer people automatically means less sales of consumptions.”

The mood in Zwolle is also not positive a day later. “The financial risk is actually so high that we cannot afford a major setback. And we certainly had that yesterday”, festival director Annemien Bruggink looks back.

Due to the downpours in the afternoon, a lot fewer people came to the festival in Zwolle: about 80,000, while there are normally between 120,000 and 150,000.

Bruggink woke up this morning with mixed feelings. “We really ended yesterday as a party,” she says RTV East. “After 6 p.m. it was completely full with the public here again. That was also as we had hoped. But that afternoon really threw a spanner in the works.”

Bruggink fears that she will have to charge entrance next year, even though she would rather not put a price tag on the day of freedom. “But that conversation is becoming more topical than ever for many festivals.”

Watch below how the Ambassadors of Freedom flew from festival to festival for their performances yesterday: