Amsterdam pulls thousands of 750th birthday party tickets over heat; Data leak emerges

Amsterdam has cut the number of people who can attend the city’s 750th birthday party on the A10 ring road on Saturday from 280,000 to 253,000. According to the city, the expected hot weather means that it needs to leave more space for people to spread out and access water points, among other things. The organizers of the party also accidentally leaked the email addresses of around 100 people who complained about not getting a ticket.

People who booked a ticket for the Op de Ring festival in May had until Sunday evening to claim them. Mayor Femke Halsema informed the city council that 84 percent of the 280,000 available tickets had been claimed, Parool reported.

Due to the expected heat, the remaining tickets will largely not be issued. A few will go to Amsterdam residents on the waiting list who could not get a ticket when they went up on May 21, despite spending hours in the online queue. But the city pulled the remaining tickets. Visitors will be “adequately informed” in the coming days.

Weeronline expects maximums to climb to 31 degrees in Amsterdam on Saturday. “Given the high expected maximum temperature, it is important to limit the crowds on and around the Op de Ring festival,” Halsema wrote to the city council. “With heat, more space is needed around the festival, waiting times on and outside the Ring must be limited, and water points must be easily accessible.”

The organization behind the Op de Ring festival also accidentally leaked the email addresses of about 100 people who complained about not getting a ticket when they went live on May 21. When responding to the complaints on Tuesday, the organization accidentally CC’d about 100 complainants, resulting in their email addresses being visible to everyone on the list, AT5 reported.

According to the Amsterdam broadcaster, a handful of recipients replied to all the addresses, creating a massive informal mailing list. Some also shared links.

Cybersecurity experts told the broadcaster that such a leak can be abused by malicious parties, who could pose as the municipality or festival organization to phish for further personal data.

Organizer Amsterdam750 apologized for the leak, blaming human error. It reported the leak to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP).