The Joint Strategic Ambition of TURF Event and Breda: Becoming more than an event

This article was written for Uncover magazine – From Global to Ground (10th edition). You can read the full magazine here. 

Author: Peter van der Aalst is manager of business relations and internationalisation at the  Academy for Leisure and Events, BUas. 

Breda’s ambition
Breda is a pleasant city with a historic city centre, but it also has the ambition to be a city of applied technology and creativity. With the development of, for instance, ’t Zoet in the railway area, the city will be growing to 230,000 residents. ’t Zoet should become a highly urbanised district with an ecosystem of applied technology and creativity.

Breda is committed to attracting and retaining creative and technological talented individuals and related business activity. There is a strong basis with businesses such as CM.com and Handpicked, initiatives like Dutch Game Week and Breda Robotics and several study programmes. In December 2025, the Ambition Document Innovation District Breda was presented, ‘an invitation to entrepreneurs, educational institutes, social organisations and residents to build an innovative and future-proof city  together.’

A conscious decision was made to focus on the Robotics & AI and Games & Creative Technology clusters. “These domains attract talented individuals and investments and encourage innovation in sectors such as healthcare, defence, agri-food, logistics, and education, leading to a broad, future-proof economy from which all Breda residents profit.”

The ambition of TURF Event 
The first TURF edition took place in 2024. The Breda cultural, event and tech organisations Mezz, Pier15, Kairos Events, CM.com, Handpicked, 360 Experience Group, and Breda Beats pooled their resources and networks for this edition. This aligned perfectly with Breda’s ambition, so the local council decided to support the initiative. 

TURF comprises TURF talks, live gigs and a diverse nightlife programme, spread across  numerous venues throughout the city. Crossovers and connections between businesses, the new generations of creatives, creators, and collectives and education are encouraged. It aims to position Breda as an international hub of applied technology and creativity. TURF aims to offer a platform for experiments, creativity and inclusion, and lay the foundations for future generations.

”TURF is based on three elements that stand out in and around the city: many talented individuals, a lot of ambition and space for development. Breda trains students for the creative sector: events, arts, tech, leisure, innovation, but we also excel in music & arts in certain parts of the creative field, both nationally and internationally. But Breda serves merely as a stepping stone in this process. We provide training, but we don’t yet offer enough support for talented individuals, which is why they leave the city. There is little room for experimentation, creative hubs, and venues, even as we work towards building the city of the future. Nightlife culture is an essential element of this. The founders of TURF have identified these elements and addressed them at their core to make and keep the city attractive to talented individuals, the cultural sector, and the business community. TURF serves as fuel, as a means to grow,” says artistic director Noa Hermans.

Rik Peters, executive director of Mezz: “There are several cities with similar events. I think that what makes TURF unique is the momentum in Breda; to bridge the night with the evening and the day, and its distinct tech focus. I feel that ESNS and ADE are still somewhat limited in that regard. And the fact that it’s outside the Randstad.”

Strategic value of event networks and platforms for a city
Greg Richards (2020) analysed on the basis of the Jheronimus Bosch 500 programme in ‘s Hertogenbosch how event-related networks and platforms took shape within the programme and what strategic value this generated for the city (see Figure 1). The results indicated that networks served to generate flows of resources, while programming helped develop platforms such as events (focus) for generating and disseminating knowledge, thereby drawing attention to the city. The Bosch 500 Foundation, which led the programme, played an effective part in developing and supporting networks, which in turn yielded significant instrumental (e.g. positioning the city) and intrinsic (substantive) value in the short term. However, the fact that no sustainable city-wide platform related to the Bosch programme was established led to the destruction of institutional value, which was seen as a missed opportunity. What lessons can Breda learn from this?

See Figure 1. on the right 

The potential of TURF Event to contribute to Breda’s ambition
TURF could become a key link in Breda’s ecosystem for applied technology and creativity by connecting and strengthening networks and attracting and retaining talent and businesses. Breda has great potential: in addition to a strong legacy in electronic music with Tiësto and Hardwell, there is room for new talent. The cultural infrastructure is robust, with initiatives such as Blind Walls Gallery, Graphic Matters, Breda Photo, Chassé Theater, Stedelijk Museum, and Pier15. Programmes such as those offered by Sint Joost (Avans), De Rooi Pannen and BUas have been producing professionals for the arts, culture, leisure, events, hospitality, and gaming industry for decades. In addition, companies such as CM.com and Handpicked are leading innovators in technology. “With TURF, Breda showcases what we stand for: a city buzzing with creativity and innovation. As a signature festival, TURF brings creators, residents and visitors together and puts Breda on the national and international map,” says Hildegard Assies, Executive Director of Breda Marketing.

“Through their organisation, the founders strongly embody the pillars of art, electronic music and tech, and have been working at the intersection of these fields for years. By bringing these elements together, they have formed the DNA of TURF, which is thus rooted in its origins. TURF was formed by Breda-based parties out of a love for the city, but also driven by the vision and ambition to demonstrate that we as TURF can create something that might even be considered typical of Breda. By thinking and acting on a larger scale and by joining forces, we try to create something greater than what we typically see in Breda,” says Rob Peters, founder and chair of the board of Handpicked.

Willem Loos, founder of 360 Experience Group, adds: “Actually, TURF isn’t typically Breda-style, and yet it is. The initiative comes from local creatives; the format isn’t typical of Breda, but it’s infused with ingredients of what Breda has to offer.”

A bright future for Breda and TURF?
TURF showcases a young, progressive, tech-savvy, and creative Breda. The local council recognises the importance of a vibrant nightlife and strong collaboration between the business world and the education sector in attracting (young) talent and business activity. Breda Marketing promotes the city’s story to the wider world, whilst the Brabant C cultural fund supports creators in realising projects during TURF, thereby generating regional impact. This also makes it possible to attract bigger national and international artists.

Yet there are challenges too. Breda is a growing city, many undeveloped areas in the  Havenkwartier district are being transformed into housing. Affordable living and working spaces, as well as the availability and retention of spaces for experimentation, are under pressure from gentrification. These are key factors in attracting and retaining young creative talent and innovative businesses. 

Based on Richards’ analysis it can be concluded that a long-term approach and   investments on a structural basis in event-related networks and platforms can be valuable in generating strategic value for the city. TURF can be a key link in this ecosystem, but building a sustainable TURF organisation is a challenge at a time when the events sector is having a hard time.

“As far as I’m concerned, the event is growing organically and attracting many people from outside the city and even internationally. All of this depends on financial resources, which in turn depend on factors such as subsidies and whether the city will help support and encourage this growth,” says Rik Peters. “We’re on our way,” notes Rob Peters. “You can see that TURF is hugely popular with stakeholders in Breda and we’re managing to attract more and more people. My dream is that we’ll grow into a national and then an international festival, with a solid revenue stream to realise that ambition. On the other hand, there’s a fear that we won’t be able to raise sufficient funds to continue growing. Over the past two years, thanks to the efforts of many volunteers, management, partners and founders, we’ve achieved something that was actually beyond our budget. To continue at the same level, we already need an extra financial boost, let alone to realise our ambition of scaling up to an international festival.”

Sources
Richards, G. (2020) The value of event networks and platforms: Evidence from a multi-annual cultural programme. Event Management, Vol. 25, 2021, Nr. 1, pp. 85-97 https://doi.org/10.3727/152599520X15894679115501

Photography
Stephen van Bokhoven
Stevy Vergouwen
Lars de Nijs