From: berts <berts@hacktic.nl>
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 1994 13:49:58 +0200 (MET DST)

Europride '94 declared bankrupt.

The "Roze Zaterdag Foundation" has been declared bankrupt. According to
some reports the organisers of this year's Europride festival in Amsterdam
were taken to court by the COC (national Dutch Gay liberation movement)
and by the printer of the glossy Europride magazine. Other reports say the
Europride organisation itself filed for bankruptcy last week. The COC was 
said to have seized money from ticket sales to cover some of the expenses
that had been made organising Europride events. Total debts are said 
to be running as high as Dfl 500,000 (about US$ 280,000) and several of 
the smaller businesses that contributed to Europride are said to be in
financial trouble as a result of unpaid bills. 
Even before the Europride event itself, which took place in Amsterdam
from june 15 until june 25, there were strong rumours around town that
the organisation did not run as it should and even then there was talk of 
possible financial problems.
On the evening of the pride march on june 25th the director of Europride
W. vd Laan stated on local tv that there were financial problems caused
by the refusal of the Amsterdam gay business community to contribute
financially to Europride while on the other cashing in on the
extra tourists the event had drawn to Amsterdam. These allegations were
quickly dismissed by local bussinessmen saying that there had been
only a few weak and uncoordinated attempts to raise money and the general
attitude of the organisers had been that they had needed no help from
anyone outside their own "clique". There was also a lot of criticism on
the way events were organised and publicised.
  
I'm sad to have to report all this. I wish it had been otherwise.
As you may know I've tried to keep you informed in the run up to 
Europride because I believe in using the Internet for the purpose of 
keeping each other informed on what happens in the gay community world wide,
even if there's bad news.

Love from Holland,
Bert 
 
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