The municipality of Leeuwarden is expecting the “giant weekend” to run smoothly based on prior experience with other similar large-scale events, albeit none quite so “large” as this.
Translation by Traci White
The city is anticipating around 400,000 visitors to fill the pavements during the three-day Royal de Luxe giant marionette performance. All of the preparedness plans are within close reach, but according to the Leeuwarder Courant, the municipality has not gotten any indications of unusual security issues or terrorism threats.
The Burmaniahuis on the Nieuwestad will serve as headquarters during the massive event, and the police will have a mobile unit set up in the city centre with feeds from cameras all over the city. The city utilised a similar surveillance tactic during other recent large-scale events like the yearly 3FM Glazen Huis fundraiser in 2013, the annual live re-enactment of the passion of the Christ, The Passion, in 2017, and the Air Force Days.
No crowd barriers
The police have not made publicly known how many agents will be working in the city this weekend, but they are working together with a number of other security companies during the event. A delegation visited the French city of Le Havre last year during another performance by the giants to observe how they set up security for the weekend. As the giants make their way through the city, they will be accompanied by 30 security guards to keep spectators on the pavements and off the streets, which means that the city will not be using any crowd barriers to keep them under control.
