Sustainability in event policy of Amsterdam : a focus on the interests of different stakeholders involved

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Sustainability in event policy of Amsterdam

a focus on the interests of different stakeholders involved

Bachelor thesis written by Elliot Sloot 16 January 2017 University of Amsterdam

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About

Title: Sustainability in event policy of Amsterdam: a focus on the interests of different

stakeholders involved

Author: Elliot (Thomas) Sloot

Student number: 10572945

E-mail: elliot.thomas@ziggo.nl Phone: +31 641000998

Education: Urban and Regional Planning Faculty: Social and Behavioural Sciences

Institution: University of Amsterdam Supervisor: Dennis Arnold

Second Reader: Richard Ronald

Date: 16 January 2017 Pages: 74

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Preface

This thesis marks the end of my journey of the Bachelor Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Amsterdam. The thesis explores sustainability in event policy in Amsterdam with a focus on the interests of different stakeholders who are involved. About one and a half year ago, in late 2015, I was an intern at the Municipality of Amsterdam. The internship gave me the perfect opportunity to bring into practice the theory I had already been taught at. During this internship, I was mainly engaged with doing fieldwork and research in event policy. The event policy of Amsterdam is constantly changing and adapting towards new emerging issues occurring in the city. I learned many aspects that are closely linked to event policy.

This is mainly the reason why I have chosen this topic. In my thesis I will discuss different aspects, such as various interests, stakeholders, management and space, which are after all closely related to the field of Urban and Regional Planning. I must say that by writing this thesis I have also been able to gain a deeper knowledge of this subject matter. I was able to link and assimilate the theory that I learnt in my classes at the University with the expertise I gained from my internship in Amsterdam.

I want to thank my teacher Dennis Arnold, who contributed to the fact that I now have accomplished this very last academic piece. The lecture meetings and keeping in touch with the other students really kept me determined to finish this thesis. Furthermore, I want to thank my family, friends and respondents who supported and helped me during the last couple of months.

Have fun reading,

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Abstract

In this bachelor thesis the interests of different stakeholders who are involved in the event policy of Amsterdam are examined. Every single year, numerous large music- and dance related events and festivals take place in public areas. Citizens tend to become more severe towards the municipality and event organizers, as these stakeholders are responsible for hosting them. Not only do these events and festivals block accessibility of public areas for citizens; they also entail many negative externalities such as noise disturbances, ecological degradation of event sites and overcapacity of space in and around the city. The new event policy, that will be set into play in April 2017, will offer a wide array of solutions for these externalities. One of these solutions will be creating more sustainable events, as permits regarding sustainability measurements will become more fixed and less flexible. Along with the prevailing disussions about global warming and how to become more aware of the environment, this research aims to shed light on the interests towards sustainability of stakeholders and how these relate to each other. By providing a framework for all stakeholders involved, power relations between stakeholders will be sketched out as well. As sustainable event management is a completely new topic, the notion of sustainability is still somewhat undefined and vague. Further research would be interesting to see how this topic will develop itself within the boundaries of event planning. Therefore, this thesis will provide a solid starting point for stakeholders in the event policy of Amsterdam to become more sustainable in the future.

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1. Introduction

In late 2015 an interesting article in newspaper Het Parool coined a new phenomenon: ‘festivallisering’ and ‘verpretparkisering’ of the city of Amsterdam. These concepts imply the process of event organizers hosting an unlimited number of events and festivals in the city, without being entirely aware of the externalities that come along with it (Parool, 2015). After this article was published, many other related articles followed describing the same issues. Even a Facebook page named ‘Stop the process of festivallisering of city parks and nature’ has been set up in order to bring together a community that can stop the organizers to host events in city parks and green areas. Once the festival season starts in April, many citizens tend to complain about noise disturbance, degradation of event sites and accessibility to city parks. The number of these externalities increases every year (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). Organizers of events and festivals and the municipality are often accused of their ignorant and commercial point of view. Therefrom, the rage of many citizens is comprehensible. However, the growth of the event industry is one of the most important drivers to boost the urban development of the city of Amsterdam (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2004). Events and festivals collect an abundant amount of profits that can be reinvested into different projects in sectors such as housing, real estate or neighbourhoods. Moreover, many event locations tend to become more attractive after hosting events, which can have a positive impact on the event site itself and on its surrounding neighbourhood

(Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). Furthermore, the case of Amsterdam is quite unique as most events are music or dance related, which causes many undesired external effects. Many of these events are situated in green city parks, which is not only a disadvantage in terms of sustainability but also reformulates the notion of public areas (Agenda Groen, 2013).

The introduction of the Facebook page came as no surprise when closely taking into account how the city of Amsterdam underwent a lot of change within a timeframe of only a couple of years. In 2009 an urban policy was introduced to boost the economy and to attract more visitors to Amsterdam. The city grew enormously in terms of population, size and economy ever since. As a result, public spaces such as city parks need to be shared with an increasing number of people. Therefore, when it comes to events, the limits of city growths have been exceeded (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). As of 2015, more than 2000 events have taken place whereof at least more than 150 events with a capacity of more than 2000 visitors. Different than a few years ago, many

professional event organizers have now claimed their position in the Amsterdam music industry. New stakeholders with new interests demand for new regulations and social relations in the city of Amsterdam.

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7 Global warming and more sustainable awareness among people have been dominant within the discourse of decision making for years now. These concepts have become ‘buzz words’ and they are used as brands in the media and marketing to make the audience critically think about the issues (Jones, 2010). Nowadays, the issue of

sustainability is ruling international concern with a clear focus on different industries, such as the tourism and the event industry (Dickson & Arcodia, 2010). The event industry has attracted more attention than ever and there is an increasing debate about how to encourage the industry to become more sustainable and how to create more awareness. Festivals and events tend to involve a considerable number of visitors in a constrained geographical area for relatively short periods of time. This leads to congestion and environmental degradation of the location and host community. Seen within these trends, the municipality of Amsterdam has the ambition to create sustainable events in particular. This should be achieved by 2020 and is part of the new event policy that should be set into play in 2017. Sustainable events tend to cause less nuisance, damage and burden for the environment. Furthermore, they fit more decently in the new, modern atmosphere of the city of Amsterdam (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). Events should not solely contribute to the reputation and goodwill of the city of

Amsterdam, as hosting events in the city forms an efficient way to create more attractiveness for the citizens. Public spaces are accessible for everyone and so are events. Thus, it is of great importance to create events that are both sustainable and tolerable for the citizens at the same time. All in all, the municipality of Amsterdam considers events as a crucial way to improve the attractiveness and experiences of the city among citizens and visitors and more importantly, events in Amsterdam tend to set the stage for the city of Amsterdam in terms of creativeness, economy and innovation on both national and global scale (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015).

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1.1 Problem discussion and research questions

Planning a festival or event are similar to planning a construction like a road, building or city. It both involves the typical project management process of defining the scope, costs and schedules (Della Lucia, 2012). As an urban planner you need a clear overview of what stakeholders and relevant actors are into play and how they can contribute to certain goals (Phi et al., 2012). There is a prevailing dilemma as the city of Amsterdam is keen on hosting many festivals and events to contribute to the attractiveness and living environment of the city. However, on the other hand, hosting events can sharply

contradict values of sustainability, public areas and interests of other stakeholders. How do stakeholders see the growing attention for more sustainability in event planning? This concern raises the following main question consisting of two essential sub-questions:

What are the interests between stakeholders regarding sustainability in

event policy of Amsterdam and how do these interests relate to each other?

1. What are the current issues for the Amsterdam event policy?

2. Who are the stakeholders in event policy of Amsterdam and what are their interests regarding sustainability?

The first question will be answered by consulting secondary (desk-research) based data available on the internet. The municipality of Amsterdam has published many

documents and reports on the developments regarding event policy in Amsterdam. The second question will be answered through fieldwork research by conducting interviews. The interests of stakeholders are subjective and cannot be found on the internet. In-depth interviews are essential in order to find answers.

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1.2 Objectives and hypothesis

The aim of this thesis is not to propose concrete and clear solutions for stakeholders to completely change their way of managing and planning (sustainable) events. The main objective is to demonstrate an overview of event policy in Amsterdam and how

sustainability has become a serious concern. Moreover, this thesis will try to show a wide array of stakeholders (with their different interests) that are involved in

sustainable event planning. From there, hopefully event planners and people involved in sustainable event policy can reflect on their current way of thinking and planning, which in turn can contribute to a more potent and less conflicting planning in event policy. As the topic is quite new and hot topic at the moment, it is expected that there are still many uncertainties and questions involved. Stakeholders in event management always seem to have particular conflicting interests and difficulties, but especially in periods where events have become more popular than ever and where sustainable awareness is growing, people in event policy must somehow find a new path to make successful events realizable.

1.3 Relevance

The topic of this thesis is not solely chosen because of personal interests, as this thesis is also quite relevant in both scientific and social ways. Hence, the question: how is this thesis relevant and how will it benefit the science and society of today and in the future?

First of all, the thesis could be relevant for scientific purposes. There hasn’t been any earlier research yet in how events can become more sustainable and how this impacts the interests of different stakeholders involved. Moreover, as for the case of Amsterdam, it is a new phenomenon that has been a hot topic for less than two years now (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). Obviously, environmental awareness is part of a much longer

discourse that has been prevailing in planning strategies for the last decades (Dickson & Arcodia, 2010). Interlinking sustainability to a subject that is quite new might provide new ways of thinking concerning sustainability and might contribute to making better (more durable) event policy possible in the future.

Secondly, this thesis could be relevant for social purposes. The primary reason for the city of Amsterdam to host many events in the city is to create attractiveness for the citizens. As the number of events grows, citizens tend to become more critical in terms of sustainability. They no longer accept events and festivals merely intended for fun and leisure. Once again, it is a brand new topic and along with the prevailing trend of

creating more sustainable awareness among citizens, this thesis might help to shed a different light on how events are viewed and how they are organized.

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1.4 Thesis outline

The thesis consists of the following four remaining parts: a theoretical framework, research methods, final results and a conclusion wrapped up by a critical reflection and suggestions for further research. The theoretical framework is required in order to understand concepts such as environmental sustainability and event policy. The framework intends to clearly define the concepts that are crucial throughout the thesis. The chapter consisting of the research methods distinctly sets out how research is conducted and what methods are used. The results are the outcomes on the research questions and will be answered thoroughly. Each question will be answered by both using literature and documents (desk-research) alongside information arising from interviews with stakeholders.

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2. Theoretical framework

In this paragraph existing literature, documents and reports will be outlined. The theoretical framework is divided into five sections in the following order below: 1. Event management as part of city marketing

2. Environmental sustainability 3. Sustainable event management

4. Stakeholders and stakeholder management 5. Summary of concepts

The first part outlines the definition of events in general. Events vary in size, purpose and timescale. Managing events can be seen as a part of city marketing, which is the process of promoting the city with the objective to encourage particular activities to take place, such as events and festivals (Tross, 2006). The second part unpacks the concept of environmental sustainability. It is a broad concept that involves a wide range of aspects. The third part consists of how environmental sustainability can be applied into event policy. Sustainable event management is a unique management strategy where critical thinking and planning is required. The last part summarizes what kind of stakeholders can be involved in event policy and how their interests can be defined. First, the notion of a stakeholder will be set out in order to understand stakeholder management. Subsequently, this way of management will be demonstrated and how interests of stakeholders can be ranked and sorted to get a full perspective of how stakeholders are intertwined into a power play in event policy. In paragraph 2.5 a short summary is outlined, referring to all theoretical concepts that are used in this thesis.

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2.1 Event management as part of city marketing

Event management or event policy falls within the scope of city marketing. Hosting events and festivals is not only a way to boost the economy; above all they positively contribute to the image of a city (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015).

City branding vs. city marketing

In the contemporary world in which cities are starting to resemble each other more than ever, it’s important for cities and metropolitan areas to stand out and make use of their unique characteristics (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2003). Competition among cities to attract visitors, businesses, residents and other target groups is regularly the main argument for cities to use particular branding or marketing tools (Braun, 2012). These tools or strategies do not solely attract different target groups, but they also boost the local economy. Moreover, it serves as a conduit for citizens to identify with their city (Kavaratzis, 2004). Many concepts were coined throughout the past; yet only two of them have received a prominent value: city branding and city marketing (Riezebos, 2009). Nevertheless, many often misuse these concepts. Describing a clear distinction between these concepts is essential in order to genuinely comprehend the value of event policy for a city.

The notion of city branding is actually part of a wider ‘place branding family’. Place branding can be applied to a particular geographical space, area or scale, such as neighbourhoods, boroughs (stadsdelen), cities, rural areas and so on (Braun, 2012). There are also other terms that are closely related to city branding, such as destination branding, nation branding city promotion (Tross, 2006). Along these lines, city branding encompasses all activities and strategies a city conducts with the purpose of turning a city into a destination (Riezebos, 2009). When successfully implemented, cities can transform themselves into a desirable place where people want to live, work and recreate (Kavaratzis, 2004). Thus, a single brand for the city can be created and extends it to all its offerings and interactions. A good example of city branding can be found in the case of New York City. In 1971, the city government introduced campaigns to ‘brand’ the city as The Big Apple (Riezebos, 2009). Back in the day, the Manhattan district was known for its violent and dark reputation. The city government desired to turn

Manhattan into an attractive, developed Metropolis.

City marketing on the other hand, involves the promotion of a city trying to attract particular activities to take place there (Tross, 2006). People tend to have certain perceptions of a city or place. City marketing strategies aim to create positive external perceptions of a city in order to encourage tourism, residents and businesses (Rennie Short, 2015). City marketing is mostly dependent on the construction, communication and management of the city’s reputation. Therefore, the object of city marketing is the city’s image, which in turn is the starting point for developing the city’s brand. Hence, city marketing is always prior to developing a brand for a city. City marketing is not a democratic process; nor is it a centrally guided system (Braun, 2012). The concept of city marketing is in fact a combination of many active actors working on different

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13 chessboards. This makes city marketing very much similar to stakeholder management, as both processes involve decision making within the scope of which stakeholders to drag in and how to create support from the community (Braun, 2012).

Events and event management

Events and festivals can be important pull-factors for creating an attractive city with massive flows of tourists and visitors (Getz, 2007). Event management is considered a fast growing professional field focusing on both tourists and visitors (Whitford, 2009). There are many different types of events and they differ in size, purpose and timeframe. Events can be described as spatial and temporal phenomenons that are characterized by their unique setting where interactions between people are take place (Getz, 2007). That being said, events tend to be never the same, as its visitors, time and location are forming them. Originally, events were created with the purpose of creating a convivial ambiance where people can interact and are having a good time. Nowadays, events and festivals have become the realm of professional organizers and entrepreneurs, mainly to earn profits and brand awareness (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). Thus, event

management can be seen as an applied (professional) field study devoted to the marketing, production and management of planned events (Getz, 2007). It offers a broad spectrum of different subjects and interlinks with a wide array of aspects in the society such as politics and the environment.

As being said, events appear in different types in terms of size, purpose and timescale. When it comes down to size, events appear in small forms such as weddings or

gatherings. Many events come in large forms as well, such as music festivals or city parades. Some events are for public celebrations (community events/festivals), which involves a variety of their programming and focuses on pride and cohesion, while others are programmed for competition, fun, entertainment, socializing or business (Getz, 2007). Most event last only for a couple of hours with a maximum duration of a day. Along these lines, it’s fundamental to have a clear distinction between the notion of an event and festival. Although, a fixed definition of a festival does not exist, but usually when an event lasts for more than one day, people involved in event management tend to speak about festivals (Jones, 2010). As a matter of a fact, it’s not possible to give a stringent definition of an event either, as events are shaped by their surroundings and their unique context. Donald Getz (2007) has provided a typology of main categories of events and festivals. This can be seen in figure 1 on the following page.

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14 Figure 1: Categories of events

Source: Getz (2007)

As the picture above displays, events can be categorised into seven categories: cultural celebrations, political and state related events, business and trade related events,

educational and scientific events, sport competitions and private events (Getz, 2007). In order to facilitate events and festivals, a certain management or strategy is required. Usually many different people are involved in the event industry: event organizers, the municipality, citizens, location administrators and visitors. Just like city marketing, event management encompasses playing on different chessboards along with different stakeholders on each board. The first step is to attract an event organisation to a particular location. The second step is to set rules and make the right agreements together with other stakeholders. After all, planning and managing events is considered a time consuming activity, which requires critical and flexible thinking (Jones, 2010).

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2.2 The concept of sustainability

Sustainability is a broad concept and should be considered within its exclusive context on how to specifically apply it to event management. It can be defined as the ability to maintain or support an activity or process over the long term (Agyeman et al., 2011). Sustainability denotes a paradigm for the future in which the three dimensions of environment, society, and economy are balanced to improve the quality of life. According to the Srivani & Thangavel (2015) sustainable development comprises the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations. In other words: sustainability comes down to ensuring that

development does not compromise the needs of current and future generations and that population growth is in harmony with the changing productive potential of the

ecosystem (Talen, 2012).

The notion of sustainability along with sustainable awareness is a trending topic now more than ever. Sustainable awareness comes down to understanding the fragility of the environment and acknowledging the importance of its protection. Everyday, people in the world, consume a lot of natural resources (Srivani & Thangavel, 2015). Thus, sustainability comes down to the commitment to social, economic and environmental factors that promote long-term survival, a capacity to endure and a sustained quality of life. Most important, it entails to think about the impact our actions have on the

environment, on the economy and on future generations. Therefore, the concept can be divided into three domains: social, environmental and economic. These are also known as the three pillars or components of sustainability.

Social

Social sustainability encompasses the ability of a society, or any social system, to continuously achieve a good social well-being (Agyeman et al., 2011). This involves that the social well-being of a country or organisation can be maintained in the long term. Awareness and the protection of the health of people from pollution and other harmful activities of countries and other businesses usually falls within this pillar as well (Talen, 2012). Last but not least, social sustainability is about maintaining access to basic, natural resources without compromising the quality of life.

Environmental

Environmental sustainability sheds light on how to protect ecosystems, air quality, integrity and sustainability of natural resources and focuses on the elements that impact the environment. Moreover, it is about how technology provides more sustainability in the future (Agyeman et al., 2011). The planet with its resources must be protected from exploitation and dilapidation at any time.

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Economic

Environmental sustainability in terms of economic aspects entails that a particular organization or company utilizes its resources efficiently and in a more responsible way in order to operate in a sustainable manner to consistently produce an operational profit (Agyeman et al., 2011). Not acting in a responsible way and using natural resources efficiently means not being able to sustain activities conducted by an organization or company in the long run (Talen, 2012). Furthermore, it comprises providing incentives to adhere sustainable rules and guidelines beyond usual legislative requirements in planning processes.

The three pillars of economic, social and environmental sustainability are often depicted in a triangle (figure 2). This triangle shows that, if one pillar is neglected or if the

equilibrium is distorted, it’s not feasible to create environmental sustainability (see figure 2 below). The three pillars are also quite similar to the three sustainable p’s: people, planet and profit. The three p’s have identical definitions: people stands for social sustainability, planet for environmental and profit for economic (Talen, 2012).

Figure 2: Triangle of sustainability

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2.3 Sustainable event management

During the Winter Olympics in France in 1992, the notion of environmental and

sustainable development in planning was introduced. Two years later, the first Olympics were held that involved sustainable event management. These Olympics took place in Lillehammer, Norway (Jones, 2010). The Centennial Olympic Congress and the Congress of Unity decided that sustainability must be applied to event planning in every Olympics from that year on in 1994. The International Olympic Committee took on the

responsibility to promote sustainable awareness among the audience involved in the Olympics. Additionally, the IOC acknowledged the concept of environmental

sustainability as a third factor of Olympism next to culture and sports (Olympic, 2017). Thereafter, the Sport and Environment Commission was set up in order to create more sustainable management and more awareness.

A few years later, clear guidelines were created about environmental sustainability. These guidelines were set into play during the Olympic Summer Games in Sydney in 2000. It was the first time that facilities for these Games were constructed in a more environmentally friendly way (Olympic, 2017). As a result, the organizers of the 2000 Sydney Games were honoured with the Global 500 Award in 2001 for organizing the most durable games ever. Since then, many other organizers of large sports events began experimenting with sustainable event management. In 2006 and 2010 during the World Cups in Germany and South Africa, the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) used certain programmes to minimize the burden on the

environment. The World Cup was a great stage to create sustainability awareness and to raise issues concerning this topic, as this tournament brings so many people together.

Definition

Sustainable event management, which is also known as greening, involves the process used to produce an event with particular concern for environmental, economic and social issues (Kornilaki, 2011). This way of event managing meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Jones, 2010). As follows, sustainable event management incorporates social,

environmental and economic aspects into decision making, which comes down to the three pillars of environmental sustainability. Therefore, sustainable event management aims for a strong awareness among citizens and stakeholders. The goal for most events is twofold, as they either need to minimize environmental impacts but they also need to maximize profits or image (Jones, 2010). This makes sustainable event management complex and thus it demands for critical thinking. Particularly the municipality takes in a tough position in event management, since they have two conflicting interests. On the one hand, they must facilitate the bidding for and stage of events and on the other hand they must protect interests of citizens and manage negative externalities (Kornilaki, 2011 & Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). In the time constrained environment of event planning and complex decision-making processes, the broader public (the community) tends to receive less attention in comparison to the other stakeholders involved in event management, such as the event organizers themselves, the location administrators or

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18 the municipality (Dickson & Arcodia, 2010).

Any event can be managed durable. The concepts of minimizing impacts of purchasing, energy production, transport, waste and sanitation can be applied in almost any situation (Ecohub, 2008). Hence, applying sustainability to the notion described by Donald Getz (2007) provides a new definition of a sustainable event. It can now be defined as a temporal phenomenon that takes places on a particular location for a particular timescale that seeks to minimize its resource use and all the potentially negative impacts on the environment (Getz, 2007 & Ecohub, 2008). By conducting sustainable event management, not only a positive influence on the environment will occur; event greening also induces educating other stakeholders and event visitors, leaving a legacy in the local community and finally it creates more awareness and more attention for sustainability issues (Ecohub, 2008).

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2.4 Stakeholders & stakeholder management

During the 70’s, the way of managing within the scope of politics and organisations was deeply influenced by the ideas of the neoclassical economics (Friedman, 1962). The neoclassical economics aimed for the determination of goods, outputs and income distribution in free markets by the supply and demand mechanism. The primary focus was to create a maximization of utility for a particular organization and its shareholders, as they were considered the only legitimated owners who were qualified to acquire all profits. A decade later, during the 80’s, several studies were revealed to shed light on the position of shareholders, since there was a growing realization that shareholders were abusing their position in many organizations and companies. Freeman (1983) was first in line to publish his findings in books and he suggested that every stakeholder must be involved into management processes at a particular organization or company. He stated that shareholders are eligible to create a better and more efficient management process within an organization or company, since every stakeholder has its unique knowledge that can be applied into planning.

Stakeholders

The word 'stakeholder' has assumed an important position in public and non-profit management theory and practice in the past 20 years (Bryson, 2004). According to Freeman (1983), the concept of a stakeholder can be outlined as someone or a group that has the ability to influence management processes and objectives for a company or organization. It also works the other way around as management processes and

objectives can have their impact on stakeholders as well. Along these lines, he further unpacks the notion of stakeholders into two groups: stakeholders that have direct influence on the planning processes of an organisation and stakeholders that can only push their voice indirectly by protesting for example (Freeman, 1983). Stakeholders can also be set out as voluntary stakeholders and non-voluntary stakeholders. The first group of stakeholders provide certain resources for a company or organization (event organizers for example), whereas the second group is not able to provide certain resources or goods, such as citizens or location administrators (Clarkson, 1995). When it comes down to sustainable event management in particular, Meegan Jones (2010) describes a distinction between internal and external stakeholders. Internal stakeholders are considered the people and decision makers that directly belong to events or festivals. Event directors, event managers and site managers fall within this category. External stakeholders on the other hand are people that are required to create sustainable events, like the local community (citizens) and the municipality, as they have certain interest regarding environmental issues.

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20 General interests of internal stakeholders

The main goal for event organizers is to host events and festivals successfully and to gain profits receive a good image from them. Primarily employed by event management companies, event organisers tend to work with a range of clients across the public sector, private sector and third sector. Therefore, organizers are forced to critically deal with all interests of the other stakeholders. Nonetheless, some event organisers may work in-house for large multinational corporations, while others work on a freelance basis (Jones, 2010).

Administrators or managers are the owners of particular event locations. Their interest is to have both a successful event as well as to have fever externalities such as damage, waste and dilapidation of soil grounds. Furthermore, some location administrators in the city of Amsterdam get paid by either the municipality or event organizers.

Therefore, hosting events can be a way to gain profits as well.

General interests of external stakeholders

Citizens, living in the surrounding neighbourhood where a particular event takes place are mostly not really keen on having events in their ‘backyard’ (Walker, 2014). Hence, the closer an event, the more negative (emotional) feelings towards it (Johnson & Scicchitano, 2012). Thus, their interests can be translated into experiencing small externalities.

The municipality can seduce event organizers to host events in the city by using marketing tools (city marketing). However, the municipality has to deal with the interest of citizens as well. Therefore, they have a precarious position, as they have multiple conflicting interests to take into account (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). Green parties are organizations that provide knowledge about sustainable event management (Nederland Schoon, 2016). They aim for more sustainability and often tend to work with event organizers to help them achieve their goals. They also use marketing tools to create more sustainable awareness and to promote themselves.

Stakeholder management

Every stakeholder has its own unique interests. These interests can be divided into five aspects: material interests, political interests, social interests, informational interests and spiritual interests (Wartick & Wood, 1999). Interests depend on both the

background of the stakeholder and the nature of a particular company or organization. This makes it often complex on how to identify certain relations between stakeholders and organisations are shaped. Therefore, stakeholder management or stakeholder analysis is required, since it denotes the process of systematically analysing and collecting information to determine whose interests should be taken into account and how power relations are shaped (Scharpf, 1997). Thus, policymakers and managers of

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21 companies and organizations are able to identify the key actors, so that they can apply their knowledge, interests, positions, alliances, and importance related to the policy. This allows policymakers and managers to interact more effectively with key

stakeholders and to increase support for a particular policy or program. When this analysis is implemented, policymakers and managers can detect and act to prevent potential misunderstandings about and/or opposition to the policy or program (Bryson, 2004). Once a stakeholder analysis is successfully implemented, the policy or program of the company or organization is more likely to succeed.

Before a company or organisation is able to carry out stakeholder management, all potential stakeholders must be identified. Mathur et al. (2007) describe a tool how all potential stakeholders and their interests can be ranked and sorted into a grid, which exposes the degree of interest and power. In figure 3 below, four categories of

stakeholders are displayed: stakeholders who have both an interest and significant power, stakeholders who have high interests but little power, stakeholders who have high power but little interests and finally stakeholders who have both little interest of little power. Power versus interest grids typically help determine which players’ interests and power bases must be taken into account in order to address the problem or issue at hand (Mathur et al., 2007). Lastly, they provide information on how to convince stakeholders to change their views and to find out what stakeholders are into play, what their interests are and how to arrange all potential stakeholders along the way to achieve a certain goal.

Figure 3: Grid of Stakeholder Analyses

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2.5 Summary of concepts

Several theoretical concepts came forward in the previous paragraphs of chapter two. In this last paragraph, all essential concepts will be briefly mentioned in order to get a clear overview.

First of all, the notion of event management as part of city marketing was defined. City marketing can be seen as the promotion of a city trying to attract particular activities to take place there (Tross, 2006). Along these lines, managing events can be seen as part of city marketing, as both processes encompass managing stakeholders together and how to deal with different interests. Moreover, event management stimulates event

organizers to organize events in the city, which after all can have a positive influence on the attractiveness and living environment. Within the scope of event management, events are seen as spatial and temporal phenomenons that are characterized by their unique setting where and interactions between people are taking place (Getz, 2007). The concept of sustainability was unpacked into three aspects: social sustainability, environmental sustainability and economic sustainability (Agyeman et al., 2011). These aspects can be further translated into the three p’s: people, planet and profit. Many studies revealed how these aspects or p’s must be in balance at all time for the sake of sustainability (Talen, 2012). This also applies in management processes.

That being said, sustainable event management or event greening stands for the processes used to produce an event with particular concern for environmental,

economic and social issues (Kornilaki, 2011). It meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations in order to meet their own needs. Event management incorporates social, environmental and economic aspects into decision making, which comes down to the three pillars of environmental sustainability. Thus, sustainable events can be described as temporal phenomenons that take place on a particular location in a particular timescope that seeks to minimize its resource use and all the potentially negative impacts on the environment (Getz, 2007 & Ecohub, 2008).

Finally, the word ‘stakeholder’ has many explanations that also depend on the context. A general definition according to Freeman (1983) is stated as follows: a stakeholder is someone or a group that has the ability to influence management processes and objectives for a company or organization. Clarkson (1995) unpacks stakeholders into voluntary and non-voluntary stakeholders, whereas Jones (2010) divides them into groups of internal and external stakeholders. Stakeholder management is an efficient method to find out what stakeholders are into play, what their interests are and how to set a particular goal by involving all potential stakeholders.

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3. Research methods

This chapter discusses how research is conducted and how the variables are defined. The research design is considered twofold. The first part of this thesis comprises of reviewing literature, documents and reports to create a broad overview of what is already known about this topic and what is still lacking. The second part contains semi-structured in-depth interviews with different stakeholders that are involved in the Amsterdam event policy. This means that each actor will be given the same set of questions and thus a broad overview of the tensions and conflicts can be outlined. A full overview of all used research methods, what the notion of event policy involves and how it links with several other concepts is displayed in figure 5 and 6 on page 27.

3.1 Research Design

The research design is a case study. A case study is the best way to examine a particular situation or problem (Yin, 2009). The way of doing research in this thesis falls under qualitative research, as a typical case (tensions and conflicts between stakeholders regarding sustainability in event policy of Amsterdam) will be explored thoroughly. It’s not about if there are any kind of tensions and conflicts, but especially about how, to what extent and why these tensions and conflicts exist (Bryman, 2012). Hence, it has a nature of an explorative research as well. It can be said that this type of research is inductive, since data will be collected before certain theories or conclusions are described.

3.2 Collecting data

As already briefly mentioned above, the way of collecting data involves two steps. The first step will be collecting information from secondary sources on the internet, like scientific literature, documents and government reports. These kinds of sources are unavoidable to consult before the fieldwork part can be conducted. This fieldwork part consists of doing semi-structured in-depth interviews with the stakeholders. Semi-structured means that the interviewee delivers answers, so that the interviewer is able to pose follow-up questions (Bryman, 2008). Moreover, as stakeholders with different backgrounds are interviewed, it won’t be helpful to ask them the same set of questions. Opting for in-depth interviews provides opportunities to ask a wide arrange of detailed questions. Hence, the different interests of stakeholders can really come forward. All the interviews will be added to the appendix of the thesis, unless the interviewee plainly states that he or she shares private information. By analysing the data from interviews, some quotes will be used in order to back-up statements that are made. Lastly, the respondents for the interviews will be chosen by conducting purposive sampling. Purposive sampling indicates exclusively picking interviewees who are relevant for this research. The aim is to approach these respondents by sending emails or by calling them. When this method does not succeed, the method of snowball sampling will be used instead. This means that the respondents come up with other related respondents themselves to make sure that a sufficient number of interviews will be arranged

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24 (Bryman, 2008).

3.3 Narrative analyses method

The narrative analyses method will be used in order to collect and analyse data. The narrative analyses method is a method that enables to arrange, rank and interpret narratives or stories (in this case the stories in interviews of actors) to really have a clear and well-defined picture of the situation (Bryman, 2012). After holding interviews it’s not solely about the content and what the actors have said, but it’s also about how the narratives are shaped and why certain actors say things as they do. Are they providing unbiased data or are they motivated to solely stress their interests? When asking questions, the first objective is to find out what the true interests of the

stakeholders are. Right after that, the stakeholders will be questioned about why they have certain interests and how these interests relate to the other stakeholders. The aim is to create an overview of the power play many stakeholders in event policy are situated in.

Potential threats

Obviously, when conducting research through interviews, various threats should be taken into consideration. The main threat in this thesis consists of merely received subjective data by the actors. There’s no way to be completely sure that each actor gives information that is representative for what’s really at stake. Therefore, this should be mentioned on forehand before starting interviews, to show awareness of this threat. Having a proper theoretical framework with objective data consisting of literature, documents and reports may prevent uncertainties. Interviews in this research are highly required, but not the entire thesis will be based on it.

3.4 Operationalization

This last paragraph is a crucial one. It denotes how concepts posed in the theoretical framework eventually will be defined and utilized in this thesis. Sustainability for example is quite a broad concept, which should be considered within its own unique context. The first sub-paragraph outlines what different types of events are examined and how they impact their surroundings. Secondly, the true meaning of sustainability in event policy is explained and how different aspects will be applied in this thesis. Lastly, the wide of array of different stakeholders that are involved in the event policy of the city of Amsterdam will be described.

Events

Events and festivals appear in all kinds of categories and vary in size (Getz, 2007). In the theoretical framework, events are defined as spatial and temporal phenomenons that are characterized by their unique setting where and interactions between people are taking

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25 place. Within the scope of this research, solely events and festivals that tend to cause negative externalities are taken into consideration. These events are usually large outdoor music- or dance-related events and festivals as they have the most impact on their surroundings. (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). Also, by consulting various

governmental reports, the municipality focuses on events with a capacity of more than 2000 visitors when reshaping the current event policy, as they are seen as malefactors for the city. Therefore, music- or dance related events and festivals with a capacity that of more than 2000 visitors of Amsterdam will be investigated in this thesis.

S

ustainability in event policy

The notion of sustainability is conceptualised into three pillars: social, environment and economic sustainability. The three pillars of sustainability can be applied into the context of sustainability in event policy, as they only hold three concepts. Therefore, within this research topic, the three pillars of sustainability will be examined and how they come forward in the event policy of Amsterdam. More importantly, it’s interesting how stakeholders define the concept of sustainability themselves (within the

boundaries of the Amsterdam event policy).

Stakeholders

Almost anybody can be a stakeholder, as long an individual or multiple persons is able to induce (small) influence. The division of internal and external stakeholders outlined by Meegan Jones (2010) will be utilized in this research. It won’t be feasible to approach all internal and external stakeholders described in the theoretical framework, due to time constraints and available resources. Moreover, many stakeholders are not

appropriate for the case of Amsterdam. The stakeholders for this research are described and motivated below.

First of all, speaking for the internal stakeholders, event organizers are crucial to

approach, as they are the key actors in the event policy. Event organizers who host large music or dance related events/festivals will be approached. It will be hard to get in touch with many event organizers, are they are usually busy and already making plans for upcoming festival season. Thus, it will be more rational to attempt to speak at least with one large festival organizer who is already familiar with sustainability issues and therefrom can provide sufficient information that generally represents the other organizers in Amsterdam as well.

Secondly, site administrators or managers are required to approach, as information provided by them is essential as well. Therefore, information provided by site administrators or managers in city parks is necessary. However, it’s not possible to approach site managers from all city parks. Besides time constraints, this would not be a wise choice, as the new event policy will have an overarching character, applying for all city parks.

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26 When it comes to external stakeholders, the municipality of Amsterdam can be seen as an important player in the event policy. On the one hand, they are responsible for facilitating events and festivals, but on the other hand they have to deal with the interests of their citizens and they must provide solutions when problems emerging from events in the city occur. Another external stakeholder may include citizens (event visitors) as well, but this group of stakeholders would only be representative if a large sample would be approached. This is quite difficult and they might have no relevant opinions as they are not educated enough when it comes to event planning. Therefore, organisations or platforms that are highly committed to operate within sustainable event management (green parties) will be picked as another external stakeholder instead. They are interesting, since they can provide information about how they define sustainability and how they think of events in general (Nederland Schoon, 2016). They also represent citizens, since they are responsible to create sustainable awareness. Once all stakeholders involved in the Amsterdam event policy are described, this research aims to outline a clear overview of all stakeholders and their interests. Therefore, the stakeholder analyses matrix by Mathur et al. (2007) will be used to find out how power relations between stakeholders are shaped and how these related to each other. As depicted in figure 4, stakeholders can have high and small power and also small and high interest.

Figure 4: Grid of stakeholders and interests

Source: Mathur et al. (2007)

On the next page, figure 5 and 6 display an overview of all research methods and the concept of event policy. Event policy is interlinked with involved stakeholders and their interests along with the notion of sustainability.

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27

EVENT POLICY

Sustainability

- Social - Environmental

- Economic

Stakeholders and general

interests

1. Event organizers: profits, image 2. Site administrators: small extnernalities,

profits

3. Municipality: marketing, image, small externalities

4. Green parties: sustainable events, marketing

Figure 5: Overview of used research methods Research type Qualitative

Research design Case Study

Data collecting Desk research + semi-structured in-depth interviews

Units of research Stakeholders (event organizers, site administrators, municipality, green parties)

Analysis method Narrative analysis

Threats Subjective data, data based partly on ‘stories’ and opinions

Strengths Deep and thorough exploration of a situation

Figure 6: The notion of event policy

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4. The case of Amsterdam

4.1 Event policy and its issues

In this chapter the first sub-question ‘what are the current issues for the Amsterdam event policy?’ will be answered. The city of Amsterdam has, throughout the years, utilized many branding and marketing tools to promote the city in a positive way and to attract people and activities. Event policy is part of this. Therefore, a broad overview of these marketing tools will be described before delving into the case of the Amsterdam event policy and what problems the city is facing.

City marketing in Amsterdam

Amsterdam’s image across the world determines the attitude of companies, visitors and inhabitants towards the city’s economic and cultural activities (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2003). Amsterdam has a strong brand name, which is interlinked with many positive associations. The city is well known for its creative atmosphere, innovation and spirit of commerce. Moreover, when it comes to the geographical location itself, the city forms a unique combination of a large airport (within 20 minutes distance of the city center), a seaport and a large economic region that fulfils the set-up needs for many international businesses (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2003). The last point can be explained by the fact that, compared to other cities like London, Paris and Berlin, Amsterdam takes in an alluring spot for companies to settle because of the low business set-up costs, historic inner city, highly-skilled and multilingual working population and a pleasant cultural climate. Additionally, the city of Amsterdam is one of the most popular tourist

destinations in Europe and even on a global scale the city peaks in many ranking lists of most popular cities to visit.

The city of Amsterdam encompassed many different brand names such as ‘Amsterdam Capital of Inspiration’ or ‘Amsterdam has It’. Throughout the years, a huge increase in tourist flows and hotel stays was visible. It can be said that the goals, when Amsterdam started to brand the city, have been achieved. However, the number of tourism flows to Amsterdam has skyrocket. This is the very reason why the municipality now states that the number of tourists needs to be reduced (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2003). Figure 7 on page 29 shows the hotel visitors in Amsterdam. The graphic shows a huge upsurge starting from 2012 to 2016 when taking into account foreign hotel visitors. Back in 2002, there were only around 7 million hotel stays by foreigners and in 2016 there were about 12 million hotel stays, which is an increase of more than 70%. The municipality expects to welcome over 23 million hotel stays in total as of 2025 (Financieel Dagblad, 2016). Additionally, the overall number of tourist visiting Amsterdam increased within only five years to 17 million tourists between 2011 and 2016 (NRC, 2016).

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Figure 7: Tourists flows in Amsterdam between 2002 and 2016

Source: Financieel Dagblad (2016)

City marketing is required in order to establish a brand or reputation for a city. City marketing aims for current and new visitors, inhabitants and businesses. To attract these target groups, the city of Amsterdam built on its unique strengths when carrying out city marketing. In the early 2000’s, the municipality of Amsterdam accommodated various large organisations, which all focused on making the city a better place to live in and to do activities. On the 23rd of September 2004, the slogan ‘I Amsterdam’ was introduced. This is considered a great milestone in the city marketing process of Amsterdam (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2004). The city desired to differentiate itself from other cities and the region aimed for a new innovative and creative approach to attract international companies as the position in the global economy was under pressure. Years later, the municipality started to conduct a particular policy for events being hosted in the city. It was considered a new way to boost the attractiveness of the city and to attract more visitors. Event companies that were willing to host an event in the city became a more important target group rather than merely attracting new

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30 Nowadays, it can be said that both city marketing strategies have led to a successful stage. In fact, they were so successfully implemented that problems in terms of

overcapacity have emerged. It seems that Amsterdam now has to deal with the results of their previous city marketing tools. Nowadays, Amsterdam is pretty much known for a place of freedom and where everything is possible (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). The current situation concerning event policy reflects how the city of Amsterdam has become a large ‘theme park’, according to citizens (Parool,

2015).

Event policy of Amsterdam

In 2015, the municipality of Amsterdam decided that the event policy of the city of Amsterdam is considered obsolete due to the current problems regarding overcapacity of events, complaining citizens and ecological dilapidation in city parks (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). The new event policy, which is ready to set into play once the festival season starts in 2017, will aim for a better balance between safety, recreation and avoidance of overcapacity (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). Furthermore, each borough used to conduct its own event policy, but this will change in 2017, as there will be an overarching event policy for the city. In all probability, the same number of events (or even more) will be hosted. Though, events will be more spread out all over the city in order to prevent overcapacity and negative externalities that come along.

Additionally, the municipality claims that permits will be more rigorous when it comes to requirements for organizers (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016).

In order to understand the problems and context of event policy in Amsterdam, it is necessary to shed light on how the policy originally was implemented and how it changed over time. Back in 2005, the municipality of Amsterdam created a special handbook with requirements for event organizers. This handbook described how permits for events worked out and how the responsibilities for event organizers were determined. It was clearly stated that event organizers were merely responsible for a suitable ambiance, security and a proper organization. This entailed event organizers to take care of precautions in terms of safety, mobility, communication and the

environment (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). Each single borough used to implement its own event policy. However, the mayor of Amsterdam was the only person who had the authority to provide permits and to establish extra rules for events when needed. Nevertheless, back in those days, event organizers were free on where and how they hosted their events and festivals, as long as they bear in mind aspects within the scope of safety, security and mobility.

In 2009, the city of Amsterdam implemented a so-called ‘urban subsidy policy’ for events. This subsidy policy intended to attract more visitors to Amsterdam with the presumption that it would boost the economy. The focus of the event policy slowly shifted towards more safety and more dispersion of events in space and time. Within three years, this new focus resulted in new rules regarding large public events hosted in

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31 the inner city, as these events quickly became more popular and thus larger in size. Queensday on the Museumplein, which comprised over 200.000 attendants, was no longer admitted for example (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). Events like Queensday were starting to reflect how the city coped with space and how these spaces slightly started to became scarcer in the city due to overcapacity. A growing realization among the

municipality and citizens emerged concerning how event locations and overall space in general had to be used more efficiently with a better aim for the future.

In 2015 it was beyond clear that events and festivals were no longer labelled as temporary activities that occur every now and then. Events had expended in size and time and they started to impact their environment and its citizens. Only in 2015, over 2000 events took place, whereof 231 events that were music- or dance-related with a capacity of more than 2000 visitors. This is illustrated in figure8 below. Five years ago, in 2010, there were only 167 large music events hosted.

Figure 8: Music events with a capacity of more than 2000 visitors in Amsterdam

Source: Gemeente Amsterdam (2016)

Therefore, the municipality came up with a new policy for large dance events and festivals in particular. This policy was originally implemented to focus on drugs, health and security at large dance events. The measurements of this new policy started to pay off immediately. In 2015 and 2016, the number of incidents as a result of alcohol abuse decreased along with damage costs on event locations and noise disturbance. However, there were still ongoing issues that had not been solved by this new event policy. Overcapacity, noise disturbances, city parks being destroyed and public areas being fenced off were still pointed out as issues that needed more attention (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). Nowadays, these problems are still considered as malefactors in the city. Thereupon, the new event policy aims for a better division of events in terms of space and time, which must tackle the issues that still exist in the city.

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Main objectives for the new event policy

The new policy will be more responsive to what is actually happening in the city. It builds upon a few trends that exist in the city of Amsterdam. A huge trend that is happening right now involves the fact that the city is expanding in terms of size and population (CBS, 2016). This is not considered as a bad development in itself, but it obviously raises endless new issues such as overcapacity and environmental

degradation of event sites (Interview Niek & Mara, 22-11-16). It demands for critical thinking on how to apply current knowledge to tackle these problems (Dickson & Arcodia, 2010). For the first time, the event policy will be implemented on a larger scale. Every borough in Amsterdam used to conduct its own policy, but this will no longer exist once the new event policy will be implemented. Establishing an overcharging event policy that applies for the entire city will enact a better approach to find a balance between safety, fun and a negative burden on the city in terms of capacity. In addition to that, the new policy aims for a more severe judgement when permits are being

submitted. Merely events that meet new requirements will be admitted in the city (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). This must lead to a decrease of events on particular event sites or areas, as solely events that meet the requirements and events that are properly organised are allowed to remain on the same site or in the same area. New event locations will be facilitated as well in order to create more capacity. As shown in figure 9, current outdoor event sites are mostly situated in the inner city. The

municipality is currently searching for new locations that are more located in less-densely populated areas (Interview Niek & Mara, 22-11-16). Nevertheless, facilitating new event locations takes time and effort. It might seem easy to find alternatives, but also new event locations tend to raise a new bunch of issues, such as accessibility and escape routes.

Figure 9: Current outdoor event locations with a capacity of >2000 visitors

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33 Another prevailing trend is that both event organizers and citizens in Amsterdam have become smarter, more innovative and more critical towards sustainability issues (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). Furthermore, event organizers in particular, tend to be more closely intertwined with the process regarding regulations of events (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2015). As already been suggested, many event organisations in Amsterdam have become larger and they have higher budgets compared to a few years ago. This allows them to gain more responsibility in a sense that they can, for instance, take their own safety precautions and have more authority. Citizens on the other hand, have become more severe as they experience many negative externalities emerging from events. Particularly citizens who live close to an event location tend to experience many negative externalities. This is the very reason why the event policy must create a

balance for these citizens who are facing undesired impacts caused by events and festivals. It’s quite important for the city of Amsterdam that events stay attractive for its citizens and visitors. Therefore, the city must be open towards a wide array of events that are not only music- or dance-related, but also bring cultural or social values to the city. Moreover, the city aims for fewer events in public spaces as they become fenced off which once again affects the freedom of citizens living in the city.

Locatieprofielen (‘location profiles’)

Concrete measurements in the event policy will be implemented through four ways. The first one will be the utilization of so-called ‘locatieprofielen’ (location profiles). During the last couple of years, various boroughs have already experimented with location profiles in their event policy. These used to be apply to particular event locations in each borough, meaning that negative externalities such as noise disturbance emerging from events often exceed the geographical boundaries of a borough. Hence, the goal is now to implement locatieprofielen all over the city, as the event policy will be applied to city scale. However, locatieprofielen are assigned to a particular location. They are intended to pose a clear picture for both event organizers and citizens and they clearly state how many events are allowed, how long they can last and what kind of events permitted (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). The locatieprofielen will be set up in a way that they can be easily compared to each other in order to put an end to exceeding externalities. Moreover, they will be more clearly defined as events organizers and citizens frequently criticized them, as they believe that locationprofielen are somewhat vague and unclear. Locationprofielen for public areas such as city parks will receive extra notice due to the fact that these locations are accessible for everyone. Events must therefore contribute to the reputation of a particular public space and the public character of a location should not be damaged by events. In addition to that, public spaces are allowed to get fenced off, but only if this is necessary because of construction activities (Gemeente

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Distribution in time and space

A second measurement will be implemented through a better (more efficient) distribution of events and festivals within the scope of time and space. This must eventually lead to less overcapacity of event locations in the city. Moreover, as events and festivals will be more spread out over the city, less negative externalities will be expected. However, to perfectly implement this method, the municipality is forced to facilitate new event locations in and around the city. As already mentioned, there is not enough knowledge and expertise yet to achieve this.

Subsidies

The third measurement will be implemented through the provision of small subsidies in order to attract smaller events that are not particularly music-related into the city. According to the municipality, events of a smaller size tend to create a closer connection between the event itself, the city and its citizens (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). Thus, citizens may become more tolerant towards events, which is an objective that peeks high on the list for the new event policy. More importantly, smaller events that are not music- or dance related entail less negative externalities and a minor burden the environment. In the figure on the page below, all concrete measurements of the new event policy are summed up. They should all contribute to a better living environment for the citizens where events and festivals should be able to fit in.

New requirements regarding sustainability in permits

The municipality of Amsterdam is keen to merely host sustainable events in 2020 (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). This means that it will be mandatory for every single event organiser to meet new, stricter requirements with regard to sustainability. Sustainability within permits for events organizers are divided into six sections, energy, water, waste, suppliers, greenery and mobility (Interview Niek & Mara, 22-11-2016). When it comes to rules within the field of energy, event organizers are forced to use green (durable) energy. If this isn’t possible, other energy facilities must be used, such as solar or wind energy. Moreover, event organizers must always publish what kind of energy they will use for a particular event (Interview Niek & Mara, 22-11-2016). Along these lines, event organizers must always provide free tap water for visitors that comes from local water sources. On the subject of waste, event organizers must always

separate their waste flows. Sustainable purchases and involving suppliers that solely provide durable items and facilities is highly recommended. Event organizers are dependent on their suppliers. If a supplier is not able to provide durable items or facilities, event organizers will not be able to make their events sustainable either (Interview Niek & Mara, 22-11-2016). Within the scope of greenery, organizers must always conduct a small research prior to an event and also after an event has taken place. This will ensure that no environmental damage will be created on the event site. More importantly, event organizers must always pay for externalities such as damage or ecological degradation of an event site. Finally, a proper flow of visitors are considered

Sustainability in event policy of Amsterdam : a focus on the interests of different stakeholders involved