Large festivals, such as Decibel Outdoor in Hilvarenbeek, are expected to have their safety plan and preparation for calamities in order. Nevertheless, incidents cannot always be prevented, such as last weekend when the hardstyle festival in the Beekse Bergen was confronted with two deceased festival-goers. “Nothing is free from danger.”
Syan Schaap works for Event Safety Institute (ESI) in Utrecht. Municipalities, event organizers, the fire service and the police can call on this independent institute. ESI provides safety advice and provides training.
“Not every organization has sufficient in-house expertise.”
“Organizers of fairgrounds, carnival in Den Bosch, the Solex race in Heeswijk-Dinther, but also the Formula 1 in Zandvoort come to us. Not every organization has the in-house expertise to deal with all kinds of rules. We were recently asked how to respond to wildfires,” says Schaap.
Organizations must in any case have a disaster plan, which is assessed in advance by the municipality and the emergency services. “Furthermore,” adds Schaap, “they must have an experienced and trained security organization that can respond resiliently to incidents and crises. Before an event, it must be clear what parties can expect from each other and who they should contact in the event of a calamity.”
Decibel Outdoor has not asked ESI for advice. Schaap emphatically does not want to attach a value judgment to this: “I assume that the people behind this festival have sufficient in-house knowledge and it is also known that they also organize other, major events.”
“Behind Decibel Outdoor is a very professional organization.”
Atze de Vrieze, pop journalist at the VPRO, can confirm that. “I’ve never been there, but I know that there is a very professional organization behind it. I don’t know what went wrong, but I don’t expect visitors to avoid Decibel Outdoor next year because of this. Such incidents happen more often, but that does not detract from the violence of what happened.”
Speaking of visitors, according to Schaap it would be good if they also keep an eye on things. “If you miss someone for a while, report it to the organization. Self-reliance is also called for when you receive signals of excessive drug use or sexual violence. In the preventive sphere, it is also important that governments and educational institutions point out the risks of major events. Nothing is free from danger.”
“Calamities must be seriously evaluated.”
According to Schaap, it is now important, for example together with the municipality of Hilvarenbeek, to see how things have been done. “You can arrange and coordinate many things well in advance, but if something suddenly happens during an event, it must be seriously evaluated.”
The 19-year-old festival-goer has become the victim of a ‘medical incident’, the police reported. Schaap: “I don’t know what caused the man’s death, but if it had to do with ecstasy, for example, I find that bitter. In Brabant in particular, a campaign is underway, ‘Skip die Trip’, to reduce drug use among young people.”
The municipality could not yet respond to questions from Omroep Brabant. It is still ‘much too early’ for the organization to think about possible measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
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