More than 200,000 people visited the Festival op de Ring in Amsterdam on Saturday, which, according to the organization, seemed to have proceeded without major incidents. “In most places it was busy but manageable,” a spokesperson told ANP.
Only the “highway rave” of Audio Obscura was temporarily shut down because it became so crowded that people climbed over the fences.
“With extra deployment of police and security, the festival was fortunately able to conclude in a nice way in the last half hour at that location as well,” the organization reports. According to them, the festival did not lead to major traffic problems in the city and beyond. The closures on the A10, which was largely closed for the festival to mark the 750th anniversary of Amsterdam, will remain in effect until Sunday at 3:00 PM.
In connection with the warm weather, 344 water points were set up. “The event was well attended and the heat presented us with extra challenges, but the visitors listened carefully to the advice to prepare for it,” the organization reports. With the weather in mind, the number of available tickets was also limited to a maximum. First there were 280,000 digital tickets available and 40,000 paper tickets. That number was capped at 253,000.
The festival started on Saturday morning with a running event and lasted until shortly after 10:00 PM. The visitors then made their way to one of the exits, an ANP reporter saw.
A spokesperson for the NS (Dutch Railways) announced shortly before 10:30 PM that there was no major crowding visible on the trains or at stations at that time. “It seems that some visitors may be staying longer because it is such a beautiful summer evening,” he says. “That probably means they will also leave more spread out.”
Earlier in the day, train traffic between Amsterdam Zuid and Duivendrecht was briefly disrupted because festival-goers walked on the tracks near Amsterdam RAI station. The track runs parallel to the A10 there.