NS strike prompts festivals Best Kept Secret and Oerol to arrange shuttle transport

The festivals Best Kept Secret and Oerol will both deploy shuttle busses for people that are planning on visiting the events on Friday but are affected by the NS strike. Best Kept Secret, which will take place in Hilvarenbeek, will have buses driving from NS stations in Oss, Breda, and Zaltbommel.

The buses for Best Kept Secret will depart three times during the day: 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 5 p.m. Festivalgoers can book a spot on one of the buses via a link that they received in an e-mail.

Oerol, which takes place in Terschelling, has said that if there is enough interest, a bus will depart from Utrecht Centraal and Amsterdam Sloterdijk. This will cost around 30 euros for the passengers.

The festivals will be using the buses as a result of the latest NS strike. The provinces of Noord-Brabant, Limburg, Zeeland, Groningen, Friesland, and Zwolle are expected to lay down their work during the day, which has led to the NS canceling all the trains. This comes after previous strikes in the last week resulted in all trains being canceled throughout the country on Tuesday and Friday.

The strikes have come due to a breakdown in negotiations between the NS and the unions VVMC, FNV, and CNV. The unions are pushing for a higher salary increase as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement than the 2.55 percent increase that the NS is currently offering. The unions feel that this does not match the inflation rates.

Around 75,000 people attended the Best Kept Secret festival in 2024, with more people expected to attend this year. Around 45,000 people attended the previous edition of the Oerol festival.