Celebrate at home: 250 Dutch artists sign up for online New Year party

The government has agreed to invest €1m in an online New Year’s festival which it hopes will keep youngsters off the streets and out of trouble.

In total, 250 performers including Douwe Bob, Jeangu Macrooy, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano and De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig have agreed to take part in the festival, which is encouraging viewers ‘to celebrate NYE at home, with your favourite artists’.

The idea was developed by Maarten Schulz of festival platform Follow the Beat, and he hopes at least 500,000 people will watch the online Goodbye2020 event.

‘I’m not normally a big fan of streaming because everything is better live,’ he told broadcaster NOS. ‘But this year everything is different. Everything is shut, you can’t make plans. So we hope to make a contribution.’

In total, viewers will be able to choose from some 40 different streams, starting at 4pm on December 31 and ending at 5am on January 1. The complete line-up will be announced next week.

The project is being supported by the government’s public safety and counter terrorism unit NCTV which has allocated the €1m in funding.

The closure of clubs and ban on fireworks are set to put a damper on the traditional Dutch New Year festivities. Some cities have already drafted in extra police in an effort to snuff out potential trouble.