Festivals avoid the raising VAT

The raising VAT on theatre tickets and concert tickets is delayed from January 1 to July 1. The rate of VAT will increase from 6% to 19%. All festivals and events after 1 July will have a 19% VAT, even when you buy them before July 1.

The first consequences of the raising VAT on festivals and events are noticeable. Some popular festivals and events are selling their tickets for summer 2011 now to take advantage of the lower rate of VAT.

Tickets Lowlands

Lowlands is a popular festival at the end of the summer. In 2011 it will be at August 19 till August 21. Tickets cost €165, - a piece. When the rate of VAT will increase from 6% to 19% they will cost €185, - a piece. The organisation of Lowland thinks that this is too expensive. For that reason Lowlands had sold their tickets for 2011 Friday 26 November. This was a great success, because within two hours it was sold out.

But Lowlands is not the only festival who is selling their tickets earlier. Zwarte Cross (16 till 18 July) and Loveland (August 14) are also selling their tickets now to take advantage of the lower rate of VAT. Also the festival organisation Extrema is selling their tickets for Extrema Outdoor and Solar Weekend earlier. Till the end of 2010 Extrema will sell their tickets with the lower rate of VAT. The first buyers are getting also a DVD from the event as reward.

Mystery Land

I came about the idea writing about festivals and events, because I went to the festival Mystery Land last summer. I was overwhelmed by seeing the greatness of it. It’s quite a job to organize such a big festival. I want to tell you more about Mystery Land and my experience from it.

Q-dance @ Mystery Land 2010

Mystery Land is a dance festival in the Netherlands since 1993. First they had different locations, but nowadays it’s always at Haarlemmermeer. Mystery Land is the oldest dance party in the Netherlands. Each year there is a different line-up with different DJ’s. In former times Mystery Land was only a house festival, but later it develops into a festival with different styles. The most important styles are Techno, House, Dance, Hardstyle, Urban, Hip-hop and Electro. With rather 60.000 visitors each year, Mystery Land belongs to one of the leading festivals in the world. Mystery Land has an all-embracing program of music, dance, art and theatre in combination with workshops, a various offer of food from all kind of cultures and al lot of other surprising objects. The slogan of Mystery Land is: “Yesterday is history. Today is a gift. Tomorrow is Mystery!”

Mystery Land is a very expensive festival (it costs €65,-), but I think it was well worth it. I had a great day and luckily the weather was good. There were different stages with different music styles. Most of the time I was at Q-dance, this is after the main stage the biggest stage of Mystery Land.