During the 7th Sunday Festival in Erp, a bowl of water fell from the sky on Sunday, no less than 54 millimeters of rain to be exact. The organizers ran from hot to here. Festival organizer Johan Dortmans: “When I got up in the morning, I already saw that we could get our chests wet. Literally and figuratively.”
A festival organizer in the Netherlands is always prepared for bad weather. Wooden floors are laid in the tents and on the routes between stages, there are wood chips on the grass and stages are partly covered. “That is standard. On Saturday we already looked at the weather forecast for Sunday. There is a crisis management team that meets every hour,” explains Dortmans.
11 millimeters of rain was forecast for Sunday. Reason to scale up last minute on Saturday night. “We have provided ponchos for the visitors, we have added extra wooden floors where it could be improved, extra people have been hired for support on a rainy day, more wood chips have been laid down. We felt we were ready.”
“You’re trying to survive the rain and make sure everyone has a good day.”
However, there was much more rain than predicted: 54 millimeters. “As an organization you try to survive the rain and ensure that everyone has a nice day. A challenge with this weather.”
Several problems arose during the first storm. One of the stages had to close because the tent turned into a kind of water bag. Dortmans: “Fortunately, it was dry for an hour and a half in between. We were then able to solve many problems. For example, we punctured the water bag.”
The organization’s primary concern was safety, he says. “Electricity and water do not mix well, so we were very alert to short circuits. And we also had to ensure that tents did not collapse.”
“We sold 45,000 tickets.”
The field was well drained, but some of the wooden decking floated in places where few people walked. People stood there knee-deep in mud. Some of the visitors went home earlier. “But there were still thousands of people. We sold 45,000 tickets and had a no-show of 11 to 12 percent, from people who didn’t come. Normally it’s one percent.”
Only a few hundred people stood at the uncovered main stage with the main acts during the day. “That stage is 35 meters high and more than a hundred meters wide, we cannot cover that. The thousands of visitors had spread over the covered stages. But at ten o’clock it became dry and it quickly became crowded again. performances by Morten and the closing act Tiësto. They went home with a nice feeling.”
“It saves a considerable number of drinks.”
The rainy day cost the catering industry a lot of turnover. There was much less drinking and eating than on a hot day. “It saves a considerable number of drinks. But next year there will simply be a new edition,” says Dortmans.