ID&T and other festivals suing Dutch government for reimposed restrictions

In the wake of rising Covid-19 cases in Europe, multiple countries have begun to reinstate their pandemic restrictions. That has not set well with festival organizers including one of the giants in the business, ID&T. As more than 30 of these organizations (including ID&T) have filed lawsuits against the Dutch government.

It has been less than a month since the Netherlands lifted their Covid restrictions. On July 9th, the country saw 7,000 new cases in less than a day, causing the government to bring back restrictions on festivals, nightclubs, and bars. Restrictions included a midnight curfew for bars and returned capacity limitations to events. This is seen as a step backward due to the country being known for holding large-scale events, especially Amsterdam Dance Event in October.

The grounds for which these organizations are suing is stating that the government had allowed them to go ahead with their events after lifting multiple restrictions but now the government has changed that status. The new rules for the events last at least until August 13th and states that attendees have to be seated and there is a capacity. With how most of these events function, those changes this late in preparation will ultimately cause organizers to postpone or cancel.

“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

ID&T is the organizer that puts on events such as Mysteryland and Sensation. Also joining them is another powerful name, the F1 Dutch Grand Prix.

“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, Managing Director at F1 Dutch Grand Prix Zandvoort:

Also joining 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.

A hearing is scheduled for July 16th in Hague.

Image Credit: Mysteryland (via Facebook)