Events industry wants guarantee from the government: "We cannot afford to miss a second summer of events"

The events sector demands clarity from the government in a full-page newspaper advertisement. Various entertainment companies are calling for a guarantee fund following the German model to start preparations for the coming summer. 

“We need to know where we stand by February 1 at the latest. Then we must have a green light start preparations,” said Jolanda Jansen, director of Ahoy Rotterdam and spokeswoman for the Alliance of Event Builders, in a press release. “Organizing large-scale events requires a long preparation time. We cannot afford to miss a second summer of events, because soon an even greater proportion of the 100,000 people will be on the street, and an industry that generates a turnover of 7.4 billion euros will be on its knees.”

In Germany, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz called on the event industry a month ago to start planning events for the second half of 2021. If events are still canceled due to the coronavirus, the German state will act as guarantor. About 2.5 billion euros has been earmarked for this. 

The event sector raised the alarm several times last year. There was the #soundofsilence campaign, and the #theshowmustgoon campaign was held on the first Monday of December. 

Going forward

Three weeks ago, the Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema announced that she would like to experiment with small events in the city in the spring. The municipality is trying to move all the major events with more than 2000 visitors to the autumn. In February, the mayor will consider which events can start preparing. 

That is also when plans will be made for King’s Day (April 27), Remembrance Day on May 4, and Liberation Day on May 5. “The hope and expectation is that more will be clear about the use of vaccines and rapid tests and the experiments announced by the Prime Minister on December 8,” said Halsema. 

According to Jansen, the event industry is eager to get back to work. “We are happy to make it a happy new year, but we need commitments and a guarantee fund, following the German model, from the government to continue.”