The legal battle between Intents Festival and a group of five insurers has now reached the courtroom. The organization behind the festival in Oisterwijk is asking the court to rule on approximately €1.5 million in damages incurred to ensure the 2024 edition could go ahead safely and in an adapted form. The insurers, however, have refused to pay out, leaving the matter in the hands of the court.
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In the run-up to Intents Festival 2024, weeks of heavy rainfall left around a quarter of the campsite unusable. Intents was forced to appeal to the understanding of its visitors, resulting in approximately 2,100 campers being turned away. Besides losing ticket, food, beverage and camping revenue, the organization also incurred significant costs to make the festival grounds accessible in time.
Insurers refuse to pay
According to Intents, these costs are covered under the adverse weather coverage of its event insurance policy. The organization also argues that the measures it took – partly at the request of the insurers – prevented the entire festival from being cancelled. A full cancellation would have resulted in significantly greater financial losses.
The insurers see things differently. They argue that the problems were not caused by sudden or exceptional weather conditions, but by the prolonged wet period that had already lasted since the end of 2023. According to their lawyer, Intents should have anticipated that the site would not have sufficient load-bearing capacity for a large-scale festival. Intents disputes this, stating that the festival site had already largely been built before the heavy rainfall began. “It was a technical hearing, but until the very end I still missed all the blood, sweat and tears that went into this,” Toine van de Ven of Intents Festival told Omroep Brabant after the hearing.
‘Never before had Brabant seen this much rain in such a short time’
Much of the hearing focused on the interpretation of the insurance policy. The insurers repeatedly referred to “extreme” weather conditions, while Intents emphasized that the term does not appear anywhere in the policy. The judges also questioned the insurers about that interpretation.
Intents maintains that a partially inaccessible festival site also posed a serious safety risk – not only for visitors, but also for emergency services trying to reach the venue. According to the organization, closing part of the campsite and doing everything possible to keep the rest of the festival running was therefore essential.
The court will deliver its verdict on August 19. The ruling will determine whether the insurers must compensate Intents Festival for the €1.5 million in damages.
Footage via Intents Festival
