Almere residents fear they will pay for Floriade disappointment

Some Almere residents say the failure of the city's Floriade Expo will be coming out of their own pockets, after the expo overshot its budget and failed to attract the estimated amount of visitors. Almere's executive board offered its resignation due to the financial setback, according to Omroep Flevoland.

The 34 million extra euros the expo will need to stay open until October does not surprise Almere resident Anouk de Graaf, she told Omroep Flevoland. "It was far too ambitious, this plan."

Almere asked to host the horticulture exhibition, which is held every 10 years in the Netherlands. However, the projected 2 million visitors who were expected to attend did not show up. The 232,500 people who have visited since the expo’s opening in April made up only a third of the expected figure –– which involved parties called “terribly disappointing,” according to the NOS.

Now, the extra money not generated from ticket sales will have to be made up somehow. "I have a very nice shop here and I pay tax on it, so that's where it will come from," Almere shop owner Kelly Vos told Omroep Flevoland.

People who did visit the expo gave it mixed reviews. On Google, many visitors who went in April said the tickets were too expensive and the actual exhibition was underwhelming. Others praised the exhibition’s array of plants. One reviewer called it “some art in [a] park,” but concluded that it was “still pretty and calming.”

Some Almere residents said they wished the money the municipality put toward the expo would have gone to something that would benefit them all. One person suggested a public pool. "It would have been better to spread those flowers and plants all over Almere,” another said.