Amsterdam's Valtifest, declared bankrupt two weeks ago, to go ahead after takeover

  • Published
    Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 16:31
  • Share
  • The festival, which will be "smaller and in a different location," had been run by the troubled events firm Meubel Stukken.
  • Amsterdam's Valtifest, declared bankrupt two weeks ago, to go ahead after takeover image
  • This year's edition of the Amsterdam festival Valtifest will go ahead despite declaring itself bankrupt at the start of the month. Ownership of Valtifest has been transferred from the events firm Meubel Stukken to Vault Events. In a statement published on Valtifest's website (which is currently down) and their Facebook page on August 11th, the event's new owners said the festival "... will be executed and programmed under a new leadership. All purchased tickets remain valid and there will be no refunds." It will take place on Saturday, September 9th as planned. The statement went on: "Due to the short term on which this acquisition took place, the 2017 edition is likely to be smaller and situated in a different location. More information on this will be announced shortly through the usual Valtifest communication channels." The festival usually takes place at the NSDM Docklands in the north of the city. On August 1st, Valtifest was declared insolvent following the sale of 3,000 tickets for the one-day event. Meubel Stukken, run by Peter Van Der Meulen, has encountered financial difficulties in the past. The Amsterdam-based newspaper Het Parool reported, in January, that 40 out of 60 artists had not been paid for performing at Valtifest's 2016 edition. Several food vendors are also awaiting payment. "They have a very bad and unproffesional attitude," one firm told Resident Advisor via email. "Non-communicative. Everybody has loads of questions while they hold our money hostage." A DJ who had performed at last year's festival agreed that Valtifest had communicated poorly, but gave a partial defence of the organisers. "They're good people," the DJ, who asked not to be named, said. "They just don't have the organisational skill. Peter [Van Der Meulen] kept on pushing that it was important to not downsize act-wise or decoration-wise, and they just completely forgot that the game changed. There is not one festival a weekend—there's ten a weekend these days." The accounting firm Vermeulen Ulutuz tried and failed to arrange a creditors' agreement last November, according to Het Parool. Meubel Stukken oversees several other event brands, including OWAP, Manifesto and Ship Happens. RA has contacted Van Der Meulen for comment. Additional reporting and translation: Frederique Van Waning
RA