The 50th anniversary of the TT Festival was an absolute highlight last year with 295,000 visitors in the city center of Asser, director Jan Gerbrand Krol also agrees. But the TT Week Assen Foundation has to make financial losses for this special edition. There was a shortage of between 20,000 and 30,000 euros.
According to Krol, that gap has been eliminated with a selection from the reserve. But the organization’s reserve fund is running out. For example, 50,000 euros had already been raised from the same pot last year for the extra anniversary activities. But since 2022, the Asser motorcycle party has no longer been able to support the more than 500,000 euros that the municipality of Assen provides the club annually, plus the 135,000 euros that the province provides.
“Since we had corona, we have had to deal with extreme price increases. And now with all the geopolitical tensions, they are skyrocketing. Petrol prices, material costs and personnel costs, everything is many times higher. We cannot manage that with the inflation correction that Assen applies to our contribution,” says Krol.
And so a lot of money is always needed to remain ‘the best party of the year’, says Krol. Or the TT Festival must scale down in terms of ambition. “It is not possible to continue with this multi-day event, which is free,” says Krol.
The hiring of security for the anniversary edition in particular turned out to be a significant cost item. “The security costs in our budget have increased by almost twenty percent. This was due to the more extensive festival programming, significantly higher hourly rates and extra deployment of security guards at the request of the security services.”
While the TT Week Assen Foundation still spent 74,000 euros on security in 2022, in 2025 this will have become a cost item of 185,000 euros. “Three years ago, the hourly rate of a security guard was 30 euros, now it is 42.50 euros. And the police have less manpower for these types of events. But the safety risks in inner-city areas remain the same. Our TT security often runs longer than budgeted during the TT Nights at the request of the police.”
There was also an additional complication last year. Due to the NATO summit in The Hague, there were fewer police on the scene on Wednesday evening. Because it was the opening night and many visitors were expected, the festival organization had to significantly increase security. Furthermore, the security services force her to work with more expensive security guards, instead of with security guards in training.
Other rising costs are better and cleaner toilet facilities, even if there is a ‘puddle fee’ in return, and the processing of waste flows despite the recyclable TT cups.
The moral of the story is that more money needs to come from city hall. “But I’ve been saying that since 2022,” says Krol. In 2019, the TT Week Assen Foundation signed a five-year agreement with the municipality of Assen. Jan Gerbrand Krol became director. The concession was extended for another two years in 2023, and now again. In the meantime, both parties must find a solution for the future.
To keep the TT Festival safe, professional and widely accessible free of charge, and to keep the quality of content up to standard, things have to be done. Krol points out the supra-regional importance of the festival, ‘which extends far beyond the city limits’. “But it remains a challenging task to organize a free, professional and impactful event.”
The floating main stage on the Vaart is separate from the financial vicissitudes, Krol emphasizes. There is a separate budget for this. The large music square on the water proved to be a great success last year, but the colossus costs 600,000 in rent and transport and construction costs.
The catering revenue on this square was 258,000 euros. Assen will contribute 225,000 euros to the pontoons this year. Whether that floating music square will come again next year depends on the success of the coming edition.