The new legislation will likely come into effect in the beginning of January next year.
The Amsterdam City Council declared that the Dutch capital will be setting up stricter sound limitations for music events around the city. Where the sound limits for surrounding residents used to be 100 decibels, they will now be restricted to 85 decibels. To comply with the new legislation, sound readings will be taken to measure volume levels onsite.
These precautions are meant to protect local residents from noise pollution. After almost every big event, residents would file a lawsuit. Instead of decreasing the amount of festivals per year, the city council hopes to solve the issue by rolling out these new restrictions.
On top of the sound limitations, the outdoor event and festival locations in Amsterdam will be restricted to hosting only 3 events per year that reach the decibel maximum. A few event locations, such as NDSM docklands and Museumplein, will be listed as high profile locations. This means that these locations will have their own profiles which outline how many events can take place per year. For a few events, such as Kingsday and the Gay Pride, sound restrictions will be a little smoother.