Everything is monitored via a control room. “With cameras, everything is viewed closely,” says Spoelstra. “Crowd management is a word we know from King’s Days, for example. This involves looking at how the audience behaves. It is identified at an early stage whether audience flows are too large or too small. Fortunately, it is not the first time that The Passion is being held. So we can rely on a lot of experience from the organization itself.”
Everything around it, from walking routes to parking lots and access routes to major roads, is covered by the mobility plan. That is Bloemerts’ work. According to him, the fact that he is well-known in the neighborhood mainly has advantages. “Of course you know the roads, the shortcuts, the shortcuts, you name it. That makes the preparation a lot easier. That can only benefit me.”
In previous editions, The Passion has been held in urban areas. The fact that a village has now been chosen requires slightly different logistics. Bloemerts points to public transport. “That is usually less in a village.” However, public transport will also scale up, he says. On the other hand, the location also has major advantages. “We are not directly adjacent to a highway that can get stuck when people come here en masse by car. I actually see more advantages than disadvantages.”
About five thousand visitors are expected at the event. According to Spoelstra, that number has been calculated based on previous editions of The Passion. There will be separate parking spaces for traffic from the north and traffic from the south. If one of the two parking spaces is full, drivers will be diverted.
According to Bloemerts and Spoelstra, the municipality is used to receiving thousands of people at events such as the Dwingeldermarkt or the ceramics market. “More people are coming to this. The difference is that those visitors come spread over a whole day and now we have an event that starts at a certain time. So that is the challenge,” says Bloemerts.
“Of course, it is a big event. It is live on television and there is more media attention for it,” Spoelstra adds. “But we often have events of this magnitude. That also characterizes this municipality.”
