Visitors to the Guilty Pleasure Festival in the Gaasperplas recreation area were promised to watch the European Championship match between the Netherlands and Turkey on a big screen last night. But that was cancelled just before the end. There are a lot of online complaints from visitors, but the festival organizer disputes the arguments of the municipality. “The story is a bit different.”
“Put your orange tiger suit out of the closet, because Guilty will get an extra dimension during our 10th anniversary: with us you can watch the European Championship quarter finals on a big screen in addition to our wonderful line-up.” This is how the Guilty Pleasure Festival announced the screening of the Netherlands-Turkey match.
On the main stage, after Jody Bernal and Lange Frans, the match was supposed to be shown, but that didn’t happen. Half an hour beforehand it was announced that this would no longer be possible.
‘Nice joke’
“It’s fascinating that the organization casually tells us at 8:30 PM that no football will be broadcast and that the entire festival then empties,” said a visitor to the festival on social media.
“I was a huge fan of this festival, but this joke you pulled yesterday is really unacceptable. Supposedly luring everyone and even advertising with big screens and then saying shortly before the match no we don’t broadcast anything.”
Many festival-goers still had a lot of coins left to buy drinks before, during and after the game. But since they had to look elsewhere, outside the grounds, they now have all the coins left. “What on earth am I supposed to do with that?” People say on Facebook that they are filing a complaint and demanding money back.
No license
A spokesperson for the Zuidoost district says when asked that no permit had been issued for playing the match. “On July 3, the municipality communicated widely that only the Westerpark had a permit for a 2024 European Championship with a screen. No other organization applied for or received this, including Guilty Pleasure.”
In addition, “the duration of the match was later in time than the existing permit for the festival. The municipality reported this, after which the organization canceled the European Championship viewing.”
‘Municipality’s arguments are incorrect’
Festival organizer Remko van der Klis feels compelled to tell his side of the story, because “the municipality’s response makes no sense.”
According to Van der Klis, the municipality’s point about the duration is incorrect. “We only intended to broadcast the first and second half.” The festival block schedule does indeed state that viewing was only possible until 11 p.m. “We give 25 events per year, we will never end later and therefore ignore the permit. Then I am in violation.”
The organization also opposes the other argument put forward by the municipality. “We applied for a permit well in advance. It was only on Saturday afternoon, just after twelve, that we received the advice not to do it.” That advice was issued, “due to several safety risks, including after a possible extension.” But the organization would not broadcast that extension anyway. And “in addition, at the very last moment we were hit with a penalty of 125 thousand euros. We were very shocked by that. In the end, we did our best to find a solution, but unfortunately that did not work.”
Van der Klis says he regrets it very much and sent the visitors an email this morning. “We have received thirty complaints, we take them very seriously, but hopefully they understand the effort we have made to broadcast the European Championship.” He will consult with his lawyer after the weekend to find out what his rights are.
