Heerlen-Centrum spring fair canceled

Because the spring fair brings joy to many people from young to old, Mayor Wever took great care in making this decision.

Mayor Wever: "The experience of recent years has taught me that in Heerlen a strong preventive and repressive effort is necessary for the spring fair to take place safely. Of course, in consultation with the security partners in recent weeks, I have looked at whether the reduced police capacity could be absorbed in another way, in order to reduce the security risks to an acceptable level. That has proved to be neither feasible nor practicable." 

Additional restrictions 

In addition to the above reasons for cancellation, there are additional constraints and circumstances at play, such as the breach of contract with the street coaches. 

Mayor Wever: "Therefore, in case of escalation of incidents requiring police deployment, I cannot guarantee the safety of the operators, visitors, residents, entrepreneurs, boas and any security guards deployed. And finally, as mayor, I remain ultimately responsible for public order, both at the fairgrounds and beyond. Hence, because of this extraordinary circumstance, I felt it necessary to cancel the fair due to security risks, however unfortunate."

Fairground operators

Nationally, regionally and locally we see that the (youth) nuisance at events such as fairs has increased. Recently the police had to intervene at the fair in Hoogland, where five arrests were made and an officer was injured. The municipality looked into whether a fair in alternative form or moving the fair days to dates outside the week of the NATO summit was possible, but this too was not feasible.