Arts & Entertainment
Literary festivals to lift our spirits The Netherlands’ top cultural festivals get creative to provide engaging, relevant, entertaining content, despite continuing social restrictions.
Annual Poetry Festival
Even though the 51st Annual Poetry International Festival has already taken place 11-13 June, interviews and reading performances are available for free viewing on the festival website, poetry.nl/en/festival This year’s theme What You Will Hear is True goes beyond entertainment. It is not just a passive experience–there is a presentational aspect–poets read live alongside digital translations, sometimes in multiple languages. Literature in general and poetry in particular acts as a special medium for capturing and expressing what is happening in the world. The dozens of poets showcasing their work at the festival provided a real and cathartic opportunity to reflect artistically and intellectually on experiences of the past year and a half. The purpose of this event was not just to entertain, but to bring people together both in person and virtually. While a small audience onsite in Rotterdam was in attendance, festival goers could purchase a virtual ticket for the entire weekend with a series of live stream broadcast events, performances, interviews, and panel discussions, all in both English and Dutch. In addition to the main broadcast, there were other elective individual workshops with poets on Zoom.
BY HANNAH BEHRENS PHOTOS CROSSING BORDER
With many big festivals forced to cancel events last year and restrictions still in place, 2021 festival organisers were faced with creative challenges to attract interested and diversion-seeking visitors. To maintain a cultural or musical event which normally draws hundreds or even thousands of visitors annually, but now with limited in-person attendance, organisers have created virtual broadcasts and live feeds. We look at two literary events in the Netherlands, and how organisers have used their creativity to keep the integrity and momentum of a much-needed social and cultural engagement.
Cultural significance
One of the poets featured at Poetry International Festival was Vanessa Kisuulen, based in Bristol, UK. Her poem Hollow, which went viral on Twitter in »
Crossing Border Tickets for the Crossing Border Festival are already available at crossingborder.nl The fully detailed schedule of evening and day programmes will be announced in September. The Crossing Border Festival is anticipating a 100% live event but should it be impossible to go ahead with this because of new Covid-19 restrictions, all ticket costs (including service costs) will be refunded in full.
ACCESS | AUTUMN 2021 | 21
