Sayyed Mohsen Hosseini (28) is from Iran and is working towards his PhD at the Biomedical Engineering. He wonders why the Dutch throw beer around during parties. “Why do you do this, surely you buy beer to drink it? I had really never seen this before coming to the Netherlands.”

Let us first introduce a nuance. Throwing beer is indeed done during some parties in the Netherlands, but not everywhere at all. Throwing beer started with the band Normaal in 1970. Normaal is a raw, rural Dutch band during whose concerts throwing beer, ripping up t-shirts and other ‘raw’ actions soon became something of a tradition. Concert-goers ordered two beers in a standard manner: one to drink up and one to throw around. This beer-throwing tradition was continued at other rural bands such as Jovink en de voederbietels, Rowwen Heze and the Band zonder Banaan. From there it trickled on to some other parties such as the World Cup football.

Not everybody appreciates the beer throwing, including the bands themselves. For one, the Band zonder Banaan last year started the action ‘senseless orders’. Rien Somers, manager of the band, comments: “The party-goers think that the artists like it. That the band thus finds out how enthusiastic they are. That is a misconception, though.”

Opinions of the concert-goers themselves about the action are divided. Some would find it a great pity if the tradition were to disappear, while others are happy that if the action succeeds they will no longer have to take cover by standing at the back somewhere. (HB)