Security experts are raising serious concerns about the organization of the massive Op de Ring festival on the A10 highway, where crowd surges, overwhelmed security staff and uncontrolled fence climbing led to chaotic and potentially dangerous conditions, Het Parool reported.
The festival, which drew about 200,000 people Saturday to celebrate Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary, unfolded in two blocks: from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. While many visitors enjoyed the event without any reported problems, video evidence shows multiple security breaches and crowd control failures that experts say would likely have been unacceptable at other festivals.
“If another party besides the municipality had been the organizer, it is questionable whether a permit would have been granted,” Marit Elders, director of Event Safety Academy, told Het Parool. She cited mass fence climbing as a critical hazard. “People could easily climb over fences, and it didn’t happen just a little — it happened en masse,” Elders said.
She also pointed out that many entered the grounds via the train tracks near Station RAI, forcing the suspension of rail traffic. “Normally, you must take extra measures if you hold an event along the tracks. The question is whether that was sufficiently done here.”
Syan Schaap, of the Event Safety Institute, described the situation bluntly. “Based on what I see in the footage, the security was as leaky as a sieve,” he told Het Parool. “People were simply walking into the event at random spots.” Schaap has previously advised major gatherings, including last year’s Feyenoord championship celebration in Rotterdam.
The organizers had reportedly been warned by multiple festival professionals in advance that they were taking major risks. Still, crowd chaos developed especially at the Highway Rave stage of Audio Obscura on the southern ring road and at the Kris Kross Amsterdam stage on the western ring.
Footage reviewed by Het Parool shows security guards failing for hours to stop fence climbers, crowds moving along the tracks near Station RAI and severe congestion in front of entrances. Around 5:15 p.m., Audio Obscura was closed to new visitors because of the pressure. For hours afterward, guards engaged in cat-and-mouse chases with people trying to slip in. One security guard was filmed being assaulted and pulled by her hair while attempting to keep people from scaling a fence.
The heat and the crowd density caused distress among attendees. Pepijn, 24, who declined to give his last name, arrived around 4 p.m. and quickly decided to leave. “We stood at the entrance for half an hour. People were shoving en masse, and it felt like we were in a pinball machine,” he told Het Parool. “Because of the crowd, we climbed over fences to get out.”
Seventeen-year-old Linda Langedijk made the same choice. “When I saw how many people were climbing over the fence, I thought: soon there will be riots. We want to stay far away from that,” she told the newspaper.
Due to the congestion, police shut down the music at the Highway Rave stage just after 8 p.m. The specially trained peace unit cleared the berm between the A10 and the tracks. Around 9:30 p.m., the music resumed briefly to cheers from the crowd.
However, the planned appearance of Armin van Buuren, who was to close the stage with Amsterdam DJ Benwal, was canceled at police request to prevent further disorder. The announcement of Van Buuren’s performance had been embargoed to avoid attracting extra crowds, but NOS mistakenly broadcast it in the 6 p.m. news while thousands were waiting at the fences.
At the Kris Kross Amsterdam stage on the Ring West, crowds continued climbing fences after the program ended at 6 p.m. The entrance at S106 was closed by 6:30 p.m., but groups repeatedly climbed over the guardrail to reach the stage. Although police officers filmed these trespassers, they did not intervene.
One man defended his decision to cross the barriers despite signs that the site was full. “Obscura is also full. I have a ticket, so I think I have the right to go,” he told Het Parool.
At 11 p.m., an hour after the festival officially ended, organizers issued a statement claiming that, as far as they knew, “no major incidents” had occurred and that most areas were “busy but manageable.” They acknowledged overcrowding only at Audio Obscura and said police and extra security helped ensure “the last half hour could still end nicely.”
The next day, police declared themselves “very satisfied” with the event’s course. Experts Elders and Schaap disputed that assessment. “How can you focus only on what went well afterward?” Schaap told Het Parool. “It probably proceeded in general as they intended.” He questioned why the municipality had not prepared better for fence climbers, especially after “chaotic ticket sales” and “clear signs” that people without tickets would try to get in. “If you fail to prevent that, you risk overcrowding, and with the heat, that carries health dangers.”
Elders cast doubt on the official attendance figure. “How can they know with so many people climbing fences? There may have been far more people, which means all the calculations about capacity were wrong. Then it becomes dangerous, with all the consequences,” she told Het Parool.
She also condemned the working conditions for security staff. “Your personnel must be able to work safely. If you are this powerless as a guard, it is not safe. The crowd walked right past them and climbed over the fences. A guard was pulled by her hair. Why haven’t they tracked down the woman who did that?”
Elders argued that municipalities should never organize events themselves. “Then you risk being the butcher inspecting your own meat. Create a foundation to handle it so there is a proper independent assessment. Now the question is whether there was a serious safety evaluation and whether the municipality applied double standards.”
Schaap suggested that political considerations influenced perceptions of success. “Maybe it was so important for the city that it simply had to go well,” he told Het Parool. “If the incidents had limited impact, the dominant impression is that everything went fine, and little attention goes to what failed.”
Opposition parties VVD and Volt in the city council said they want answers. “Regarding the preparation and decision-making, there was clearly a risk taken,” said VVD faction leader Daan Wijnants. “It could have ended badly.”
Juliet Broersen, Volt’s faction leader, stood near Audio Obscura when the doors reopened. “When they opened, the crowd reacted like animals: there was screaming, running and pushing,” she said. “Luckily it ended well, but it felt anything but safe.”