Missed emails, Amsterdam bureaucracy led to festival Music On's last-minute cancellation
The fact that the Music On festival in Amsterdam was canceled mere hours before its doors were scheduled to open was partly due to the slow response of the North Sea Canal Area Environmental Service. The city had asked the environmental agency for a safety assessment on a new tent the festival wanted to use, and Amsterdam officials sent the agency four reminders in the weeks leading up to the festival day, but only received a response too late to matter, AT5 discovered.
According to answers from Mayor Femke Halsema to questions from D66, VVD, and Volt council members, the festival organizer requested a different tent on March 18, one day after receiving its permit. The proposed replacement was a round tent without sight-obstructing support pillars. The municipality asked the North Sea Canal Area Environmental Service for advice on March 25.
On May 5, four days before the festival, the environmental agency informed the city that it could not issue a positive safety assessment for the tent. The organizer was told of the decision on May 6, three days before the event.
In the period between the city's request and the agency's response, Amsterdam sent reminder emails on April 13, April 23, April 30, and May 4 after the organizer reported it had still not received an answer. The timeline does not show whether the municipality also attempted to contact the agency by phone.
The environmental agency said it is still investigating what went wrong. “It now appears that the emails arrived at an address where we did not expect them,” a spokesperson said. “It may have been an incorrect address. We are now investigating that.”
Permit applications, including those involving a new tent, must be submitted 16 weeks in advance. Music On's organizer filed the request just over seven weeks before the festival. Organizer Wouter Muurlink said such late changes are common in the music industry. “That really never causes problems.”
The municipality informed the organizer on May 6 that it should prepare for the possibility that the permit would be withdrawn over the new tent. However, officials also said there was still a chance the tent could remain in place if modifications were made.
On May 8, the organizer was told that the North Sea Canal Area Environmental Service considered the proposed additional safety measures insufficient. After several consultations involving the municipality, the agency, and the organizer, Halsema revoked the permit at 9:25 a.m. on May 9. The festival, scheduled to begin at noon, was canceled about two hours before opening.
Halsema said she had only been informed of the problems a few hours earlier. “At that moment, I could no longer assess whether the negative advice was merely a theoretical issue,” she told AT5 last week.
