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What The Hack: Frequently Asked Questions

RULES - Be your own security

We have tried to minimize the number of rules, and once there you will notice we are very much counting on you all being a community of participants instead of a crowd of consumers. First and foremost, we would hope that you please respect the fragility of such an arrangement at an event of this scale, and feel responsible for telling others that may be less aware of how special this is.

• No fires, no charcoal barbeques
• If you bring a dog it has to be well-behaved, in the same place as you, and you have to clean up any and all dogshit.
• Parking only at the parking area unless your car is a camper. (For vans, see below)
• Do not operate wireless base-stations. (See below)
• (There will be some more campsite rules added as the event draws even closer...)

Tickets

How much is a ticket?

Pre-sale of tickets has closed on july 1st. Tickets are still available at the door, and will cost 150 Euros. (You could have paid as little as 120 Euros if you had paid well in advance.)

So is it still available online?

No, you are too late. And please do not transfer money to our bankaccount (unless you want to donate), because we will just send it back, and even if we don't manage to refund your money it will not guarantuee you a ticket.

How much for kids?

Kids aged 0-7 get in for free. Tickets for kids aged 8-14 are 75 Euros at the door. Anyone 15 or over needs to pay the full ticket price. Kids aged 0-14 need to be accompanied by a responsible person aged 18 or over.

Why is it so expensive?

If you're at What The Hack you'll notice there's lots of space, many places to sit down and relax, and lots of things to do. In fact: the cost structure of an event like What The Hack isn't all that different from a rock festival that caters to tens of thousands of people. What The Hack is organized by a non-profit foundation.

I'm volunteering to do work, do I get a special discount?

No. Sorry. We can't even lower the fees for those that come as volunteers. If you are volunteering, this by no means means that we do not see how important your work is at events like ours. Our fundamental problem with discounts for hard-working volunteers is that very, very, very large crowds of people are working their behinds off at an event like this, and consequently things will quickly get messy if one group of volunteers gets a discount and another doesn't.

I have not received a ticket-confirmation, what do I do?

Send an email to account@whatthehack.org, with your WhatTheHack login name, date of payment and details of how you paid. If you can not show your confirmation email at the entrance you will have to pay to get in!

Travel

The Netherlands

Is not in any US state. Neither is it the capital of Denmark: it is a small monarchy, roughly 200 x 300 kilometers at the longest and widest, 16 million inhabitants. Western industrialized country, high standard of living, expensive, lousy food anywhere but on our campsite, but you can drink the tap water. No major injections needed to travel there, no visa requirements for inhabitants of other western industrialized countries but immigration officials can be fairly nasty towards pretty much anyone else.

How do I get there?

Lots of ways. We have a special Traveling page with more details.

What's the weather like?

We've had anything from blistering sun and 32 degrees Celcius (in 1997) to moderate temperatures and quite rainy days (in 2001). So if you bring shorts, sun lotion, an umbrella and at least one sweater you should be fine.

Campsite

What about food and drinks?

We'll supply food and drinks to those working hard to set up the common facilities during the early buildup phase, as well as those helping out during the tear-down phase. At any other time, you can buy food and drinks at reasonable prices at various different stands and bars spread throughout the event. If you'd rather bring your own drinks and cook your own food, that's fine too. You need permission from us to sell food or drinks at WTH, as such things are subject to official permits in The Netherlands. So please talk to us first if you plan to open a bar or restaurant. Lots of things are in fact possible, and we are actively working to have more small-scale food and drink places this time.

Will there be vegetarian/vegan food?

Yes.

Can I bring my dog?

This is a bit of a touchy subject. I guess the short answer is that we'd prefer you didn't. But we know a few people that would otherwise be unable to come, and the area we have this time is very large, so if your dog is well-behaved it's not a real problem. But please be very mindful of others and only camp close to people that do not mind the dog. We are not responsible for what your fellow campers will do to you if your dog is of the type that just must bark for 10 minutes at 06:30. Always clean up any dogshit on the fields. Re-read the previous sentence. The terrain is large: make sure your dog is with you, and not someplace far away where you have no clue what it's doing.

Can I make a campfire?

No. Given the position of this estate in a very pretty and somewhat fragile bit of nature, fires are not permitted.

Can I barbecue?

Only if your barbecue is gas-heated, and well away from the grass. This contradicts earlier information on this spot. We had misunderstood the rules of the estate we are on. Prior to what we previously and erroneously thought, charcoal barbecues are not permitted. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Can I park my car next to my tent?

No, sorry. There's lots of cables which would get damaged by cars driving over them, and we also feel parked cars make the place look like a giant parking lot. We will have (plenty of) designated parking spaces. Campers and caravans will be allowed on some fields. On at least some fields you will be able to use your car to deliver stuff to the area where you camp, and to pick up stuff before you go home. The actual policy regarding this has to be determined somewhat last-minute: we may allow it on all fields if the weather in the preceding weeks is dry enough. (We pay for all damages to the fields, and some fields are more susceptible to damage than others). If you sleep in a regular plain van, you must make it look visually attractive in some way.

Will there be electrical power?

Yes. Power is 220-240 Volts/50 Hz AC, and you're likely to find a standard mainland-european outlet. Bring a nice length extension cord (50 meters would do). Bring more outlets than you have plugs.

Ah, so I can hook up my microwave oven?

No. We kindly request that you do not connect coffee-makers, electric heaters, microwaves, large refrigerators or anything else that takes a lot of power. Exceptions are power used for heating baby-milk and any and all medical equipment. (Please be advised that we do not recommend life-support systems without proper backup power to be hooked up on the campground power grid). If you plan to set up facilities for a larger group, a large fridge may be OK: please coordinate with the power crew.

Will there be network connectivity?

Yes. RJ-45 jacks are at least every 100 meters at the edges of most fields. You may want to bring that nice Ethernet switch you have lying around, as well as some larges lengths of CAT5 cable. Hookups will be 100 MBps, our DHCP server will pass out world-reachable IP-addresses, and there will be enough Internet bandwidth for all to share.

What about wireless?

We will try to create a functioning 802.11b (2.4 GHz) and 802.11a(5 GHz) network. So if you bring a computer with a wireless card, you should have network. We ask that you do not bring any base-stations, since people setting up their own base-stations tend to mess up the network. Separate from the networking crew's efforts to create a network, there will also be a coordinated mesh networking experiment on 802.11b channel 10. Please check the wiki for details on this. Also for channel 10, you must coordinate with the other people doing the mesh experiment.