Music festivals struggling in Netherlands; At least 60 canceled this year

Dutch music festivals are struggling. At least 60 festivals with over 3,000 attendees have been canceled this year - a record when excluding the pandemic years. Typically, canceled festivals are replaced by new ones. But this year, there have only been 30 new festivals so far. For now, that means a net loss of 30 festivals, AD reports.

“The market is under even more pressure,” event researcher Lex Kruijver of Respons Evemenenten told the newspaper. “The time of the great growth of festivals is over. It has become a fight and survive market.”

Festivals have been struggling with rising costs since the coronavirus pandemic. Staff and material shortages are also a problem. And many organizers complain about increasing regulations. Big festivals like Loveland, Mystic Garden, and Dockyard recently spoke out against Amsterdam’s plans to experiment with a new way of assigning scarce event space to events in 2025. The festivals will only find out at the end of this year if they’re getting space on the 2025 calendar, which is unworkable, the festivals said.

Festival organizers never like canceling, but sometimes they have little choice, Willem Westermann of the Association of Event Makers (VVEM) told AD. “For events with ticket sales, the costs and also the permit requirements are indeed reasons to reconsider whether you want to continue,” he said.

Visitor behavior also plays a role, he said. Due to inflation, almost all multi-day Dutch festivals have increased their ticket prices this year. Pinkpop tickets are even approaching 300 euros for the entire weekend. So far, only 40,000 tickets have sold for the Friday and Saturday, while there is room for approximately 75,000 attendees. “It is certainly true that not every festival sells out,” Westermann said.

Berend Schans of the Association of Dutch Pop Venues and Festivals (VNPF) is not panicking yet. “The festival offering is always changing. The audiences too. Tase changes, people enter a different phase of their lives,” Schans said. He pointed out that expensive concerts are still selling out very quickly. “In addition, we have not yet seen a drop in demand for other programs. We cannot yet say whether there is a development that will go in a certain direction for a longer period of time.”