While on one side festivals are banning camelbaks and doing nothing about the soaring prices of bottled water at outdoor festivals, Mayor van der laan of Amsterdam has emerged as all ravers’ savior. Spearheading a bill that makes it mandatory for all outdoor festivals in Amsterdam to provide free water, the Mayor made this decision after visitors had trouble accessing open taps to refill their bottles. Council member Daniel van der Ree explains his approval of the bill
We’re talking about festival goers on a closed-off terrain that who are usually exercising enormous efforts in the burning sun. This group of people should be optimally protected from the dangers of dehydration or fatigue and should thus have unlimited access to free drinking water
Keeping health in mind, this decision is a life-saver, literally. With the rising fatalities at festivals, this bold move curbs the dangers of dehydration in the scorching sun. At prices for water that meet those of alcohol, most festival go-ers tend to splurge on the latter till they are eventually too broke for the former and either leave or spend the rest of the festival parched. Hopefully this shall be implemented globally – it’s definitely a better utilization of water than by the ice bucket challenge.
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