Dutch Music Festivals Reschedule Dates After Government Promises Financial Reimbursement for Forced Cancellations

The Dutch government has allocated a €300 million fund allowing organizers of large scale events, including music festivals, to seek access to financial reimbursement in case their events are forcibly cancelled.

Events eligible for such government support will need to be taking place between July 1st and the end of 2021, a timeframe that is already creating a strong incentive for organizers to reschedule their events to Q3 or Q4 of 2021. A slew of festivals including Awakenings, DGTL, Dauwpop, Paaspop, Utrecht Central Park Festival, and Zwarte Cross have already taken the leap, announcing new dates for September of this year.

Despite the shuffle, ticket holders are standing by as 85% of tickets for the 2021 edition of Utrecht Central Park Festival were sold last year. Meanwhile, the newly announced A State Of Trance ASOT1000 celebration in Utrecht—scheduled for September—sold 55,000 tickets in four hours.

Business fairs, music festivals, and sporting events of 3,000 attendees or more will be eligible under the Dutch insurance program to seek up to 80% of their capital losses in the event regulators force them to reschedule. Recent statements from Ingrid Van Engelshoven, the Minister of Education, Culture, and Science, have added to the optimism as she expects mass gatherings will be able to safely take place prior to July.

Source: IQ Magazine