City council's policy and apathy kills street theatre in Amsterdam !

The last few years there has been a downdoing tendency in the circumstances for streetperforming in Amsterdam. While it is more and more difficult to perform for an increasingly demanding audience in a globally difficult period, the city council of Amsterdam does not support street theatre in any way, or even on the contrary.

The Amsterdam Street Performers are trying to communicate with the city council for almost two years now, in an attempt to solve problems and keep the streets of Amsterdam alive. But up to now the Council has delayed, changed, or simply not fullfilled earlier plannings. Still information is incomplete, wrong, or just not given. Police don't know the rules and sometimes behave like with criminals. Performing sites are less and less available. Rules and regulations are too tight. The performers' proposals are systematically ignored.

See news update July 15, 2005.

City council of Amsterdam bans foreign street performers.

Meanwhile the performing sites in town are dying out, slowly but steadily. The city council continues doing nothing, except one thing: outlawing one large and important group.

As of December 1st, 2003 the City Council of Amsterdam stopped issueing licenses to non-european street performers.

The Amsterdam Street Performers think this is the last back-stab for street theatre in Amsterdam and believe this is killing the Art of Street theatre and even violating the Constitution (read here why we think so...).

Well-motivated requests from the Amsterdam Street Performers to the city council to reconsider are postponed again and again. Meanwhile, a Canadian clown was officially refused a license.

It's enough now. The Amsterdam Street Performers will do everything to reverse this and if necessary will go to court. The Amsterdam Street Performers are considering organizing a protest event with lots of high-class entertainment and lots of signatures from the public.
See news update March 31, 2010.