Festival locations in Amsterdam

The Dutch have an admiration for the summer and the sun. In the summertime you will find every restaurant or bar terrace packed with sun worshippers sipping on a rose or a blonde beer. Phrases such as: “Terrasje pakken?" or "Zullen we een wijntje/biertje gaan doen?” are probably among the most used sentences in the period from mid-April to mid-October. Maybe this urge to spend time outdoors is fueled by the cold and wet winters and fall, or maybe it is imbedded into the Dutch genes.

Besides the casual day drinking at a terrace there is one thing the Dutch might love to do even more in the summer: going to a festival. The highlight of Dutch-Summer culture for many. I dare you to think of something random right now, and I can almost certainly assure you that there is a festival for it. Wine, craft-beer, Gin and Tonic, chicken, theater, football, art, different cultures and of course music, name it and there’s a festival for it.

With 192 festivals in 2019 in Amsterdam alone, it is safe to say that there are a lot. 192 festivals averages almost one festival every two days. However, as festive as a festival may be, there are always people who are not really the party animal. Festivals generate a lot of nuisance. Not only noise disturbance, but also a lot of traffic, crowds, waste and of course a lot of bikes as we are in the Netherlands. Because of the festival related nuisance the city council decided to limit the number of festivals that could be held in Amsterdam and also subject them to stricter rules. As a result of this the number of festivals in the city dropped from 240 in 2016, to 207 in 2017 and a meager 192 in 2019 (Parool, 2019). Could this be the end of yet another, but this time an actual great Dutch tradition? We certainly don’t hope so. That is why we decided to use GIS to find the best festival location in Amsterdam, one that is both accessible and doesn’t generate too much nuisance with residents.

The main question in this research is:

How is noise disturbance from festivals distributed over Amsterdam and where do most people get affected by this?

If you are not the one attending a festival and are not having the time of your life, the music and bass can be interpreted as noise, which is defended as unwanted. Noise is everywhere, whether it comes from transport, industry, neighbors or festivals. According to Stansfeld et. al (2003) noise interferes in complex task performance, modifies social behavior and causes annoyance on the short term. On the long term, exposure to noise can be associated with physical issues such as hypertension and stress. Sounds can be categorized in restorative sounds and sounds that disrupt restoration (Payne, 2019). Natural sounds, like soft bird sounds and rippling water can have restorative effects on human beings, helping them with mental problems and stress. Traffic sounds however and repetitive unwanted sound can disrupt the restoration process, leading to more stress. Longtime exposure to stress may also lead to psychological symptoms (Payne, 2019).

In the public debate about festivals in Amsterdam two discourses can be found. The critics claim that there are too many festivals and that the city should not only be a place for leisure and fun. Critics also believe that the municipality too often turns a blind eye when it comes to the volume norms (Parool, 2019) resulting in even more resistance.

Proponents of the festival on the other hand state that critics exaggerate and categorize festivals unfairly the same as tourist overcrowding, bachelorette parties, beer bikes and the sound of suitcase wheels. Festivals are another scapegoat for a much bigger problem. However, from the perspective of the municipality there are also a lot of benefits to hosting a festival, for example the economic effects it can have on a district (Hermanussen, 2017).

This conflict is fueled by the right to the city. This right is not only a right to what already exists, but also a right to change it after once desire (Harvey, 2005). This theory which came from Lefebvre touches upon the subject whose interests are more important and comes from the Marxist theories. In contemporary cities more and more becomes commodified, from parks and recreational areas to nuisance free areas. There can be conflicts between residents of the city and festival tourists as they both have different interests.

Every event in Amsterdam must receive a permit from the mayor (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2018). Recently, the municipality of Amsterdam has renewed its noise policy because of the increase of big music events in the city. This is because they cause nuisance for more and more residents, the music style is changing with for instance more lower bass tones and the whole complexity of noise disturbance as a whole is being more understood. The main purpose of this new noice policy is to minimize the noise disturbance for residents living in the surrounding neighborhoods. In this story map, we will further research the noise disturbance events in Amsterdam cause, how many and what kind of residents are effected, and how far the noise extends and what the effects of noise disturbance are. Furthermore, we will also try to find places in Amsterdam suitable for events with the least amount of residents effected by noise disturbance, while still being accessible with the bike and public transport.

The municipality of Amsterdam has created a measurement and calculation protocol as part of the policy rule "Noise policy for events in Amsterdam”. This protocol contains assessment points with which the noise is measured. The first and foremost is that the limit values for event noise apply to the facades of surrounding homes and buildings such as schools and hospitals. These facades have to have windows and doors, but wether these can be opened is not important (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2019). Sound transmission can vary greatly because of meteorological conditions, especially over distances longer than 50 meters. A facade can measure up to 3 dB more when it's in the wind. Noise disturbance is always around, wether its because of industries, construction zones, or music events. On queensday alone in 2011, 18% of the disturbance residents in Amsterdam experienced was noise disturbance because of music events (Vossers, 2012).

In total, Amsterdam has allowed for 66 locations throughout the city to host different kinds of events (Stedelijk Evenementenbureau, 2018). These events are part of the sector “hospitality economy” (KPMG, 2017). For this story map, we have selected only the locations that host at least one event with more than 2000 people every year. We made this separation because for every music event in Amsterdam with more than 1500 visitors, an acoustical test (akoestisch onderzoek) is mandatory. Furthermore, the municipality made a clear separation between small and big events. Small events can host up to 2000 people, beyond 2000 the municipality categorized them as big. We also decided not to include clubs with an outside area such as Thuishaven or Festimi, because they are subjected to other rules. In the end this resulted in a list of 32 locations in Amsterdam that host big events. We made a list of the amount of days a location can host events, with and without 75-85 dB(c) noise disturbance. These locations can, starting from 2018, host events for 5 years. Only on kings day and gay pride the noise disturbance can exceed 85 dB(c), because these days are seen as soical interests (Stedelijk Evenementenbureau, 2017).

A problem we encountered with these locations is that the festivals all use the locations differently. Some festivals want to use the whole location, with speakers and different stages while other festivals maybe only have one stage and space for other activities, or just half of the location.

We decided we would use the coordinates of exactly the center of each location, therefore acting as if these locations are dots.

As mentioned before, noise disturbance is measured very carefully with new protocols and often a special acoustical test. Even then, people experience noise differently and it goes as far as to say that the way an ear is shaped has an effect on the amount of noise a person can hear. The pleasantness-Eventfulness model, also shows that exciting sounds are very close to chaotic sounds, meaning that what a person experiences as an exciting sound, can also be experienced as chaotic or unpleasant by others (Jin Yong, 2019).

Basstones also travel differently than higher tones and reach bigger areas (Hermanussen, 2017). This, and the fact that the spreading of noise of a festival can vary greatly with different meteorological conditions and things such as trees and water made it hard for us to figure out at what distance residents would still hear music (van Renterghem, 2019).

Therefore we decided to create 3 buffers that show a very simplified version of the way sound travels. We decided to do this because the way sound travels through air can be altered by many variables, such as air temperature, air pressure, reflection on buildings and interference with other sound waves. To get an idea of the loudness of the festival at different distances, we used a sound propagation tool (Noisetools.net, 2019) that calculates and gives an indication of the amount of decibels at different distances and with different surroundings. Based on the information we got from this tool we created three buffers around the festival sites.

The first being a buffer of 250 meters surrounding the middle of a festival. Anyone living in this area, when there is a festival going on will hear noise, sometimes as clear as the music played at the festival.

The second buffer is that of 500 meters surrounding the middle of a festival. The residents in this area will hear noises depending on the tone it is and depending on weather conditions. In the 500 meter area the presence of vegetation such as trees has a large effect on the propagation of the noise and the level of nuisance residents may experience.

The last buffer that was made, is one of 1000 meters surrounding the middle of the festival. According to the tool we used, the intensity of the sound generated by festivals would be so low after 1000 meters that it would not really be experienced as noise. We also found that sound with an intensity so high that it would bother people, only reaches 1000m from a source under almost ideal conditions. This last buffer is therefore a control buffer to make sure all residents that could possibly be affected are accounted for.

To find the number of people living within these three buffers, we made a spatial join between the buffer layers and the CBS 100 by 100 meter maplayer. This maplayer with data from the year 2018 has statistics on inhabitants in The Netherlands on a 100 by 100 meter scale, such as the number of inhabitants in the area and socio-economic statistics of the inhabitants. We made a spatial join for all the buffers separately, to find the number of people living in each individual buffer which made it possible to find the festival that will cause nuisance to the highest number of inhabitants. After that, we also did a spatial join with buffers that were dissolved, so we could calculate the total number of inhabitants living close to a festival location. We used SUM as a merge rule, to calculate the total number of inhabitants living in a buffer.

We also looked into the accessibility of the festival sites. When festivals are too far away, the only convenient option can sometimes be the car, but as many people use substances like alcohol or drugs at festivals, this is not a safe way of commuting from and to a location (Hermanussen, 2017). Given that most residents in Amsterdam own a bicycle and that renting a bike is fairly easy, going to a festival by bike seems like the best option.

To find out about the accessibility we used a network analysis. A network analysis can answer a range of questions related to linear networks such as roads, railways, rivers, facilities and other utilities (Comber, 2008). The spatial analysis uses network data to calculate the distance between different nodes or points in a network. In our case we started on each festival site and used GIS to calculate how many residents could reach the site in a 30 minute public transit or bike ride. 

As we tried to find one festival location that is perfect, we realise there is none. Either a location is well accessible, but has too many residents living nearby experiencing noise disturbance, or you have a location without too many residents living close by, but then the bike ride or public transport to the location is too long. Amsterdam is a small city, and while festivals are a big part of the economic and cultural sector, it is hard to please everyone because as dutch phrase goes: we are on each others lip all the time.

Amstelpark and NDSM have a very low amount of surrounding residents and an okay accessibility. The locations are big enough to host big music events, unlike locations like the Dam or the Appeltjesmarkt. This makes them very good options for noisy festivals. The Olympisch stadion has a pretty good score on all of the criteria. It scores lower on the disturbed surrounding residents, but much higher on accessibility by public transport. Every location has a lot of pros and cons. Which location suits best highly depends on the kind of festival that will be held. This story map functions as a tool in which multiple characteristics of festival locations can be analysed easily to find the perfect location for every event.

As was mentioned in the methods, both the locations of festivals and how far noise will travel are difficult things to measure correctly given the time span we had.

For a complete and correct report on the best festival locations, sound and noise should be more understood and a collaboration with a physics scholar could help us understand the difficult concepts better. The coordinates we now used are also far from reality as the size of festivals are different every time. In a future report, maybe only looking at specific festivals instead of the locations can help make it a little more precise and correct.

It seems like this story map has been seen by many already..

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 http://noisetools.net/noisecalculator2?source=[1.5,250,100]&receiver=[1.5,25]&barrier=[0]&G=1&display=0  (latest accessed 1 December 2019)