Something for everyone at the Zeeland Liberation Festival

By means of: Joep Bbrakers

9 minutes ago

General

VLISSINGEN – The Sparkling Zeeland Foundation, which is organizing the Zeeland Liberation Festival for the first time this year, is ready for it. “We have a nice varied programming,” says Robert Waverijn of Bruisend Zeeland. “The range of artists is very diverse, really something for everyone. It has been hard work to organize the festival in a relatively short period of time. Let’s hope the weather is nice, the forecasts still change from day to day.”

Four months ago, the Sparkling Zeeland Foundation filled the gap that arose after the Cultuurwerf Vlissingen went bankrupt. In just four months, Robert Waverijn and Reza Geleedst and their team have managed to set up the Zeeland Liberation Festival 2024.

Machine factory

For the first time since the shell restoration, the Machine Factory is being used as an event location. “The Zeeland Podium will be located there,” says Waverijn. “This is organized in collaboration with Pop aan Zee and there we offer young Zeeland talent an opportunity to play on a real stage. In addition to the stage, there will be seats and food trucks and visitors can eat or drink something.” Waverijn would also have liked to build the Liberty Stage in the Machine Factory. “That is not possible for safety reasons. Only a limited number of people can enter the Machine Factory because otherwise there would not be enough emergency exits.” Because rain can affect the festival, the organization would have preferred to do as much as possible in the Machine Factory. “We have looked into covering everything, but that is not financially feasible. So we just assume that it will remain dry.”

Freedom Square

The Freedom Square is being set up opposite the Machine Factory on the Peperdijk. Waverijn: “I am happy that we also have good programming in terms of content. Of course, it is not just about appealing artists but the Liberation Festival, but also about the message that the festival conveys.” This year, the Zeeland Liberation Festival focuses on the themes of freedom, inclusivity, sustainability and humanity. Authorities such as the Walcheren Mozaik Foundation, Keti Koti, the War Years Foundation, the Dutch Veterans Institute, the Liberation Museum Nieuwdorp, 101 Prevention, Humanitas, GGD, Red Cross and the Anti-Discrimination Bureau are present on Freedom Square.

Freedom College

On the Four Freedom stage, journalist Nikki Sterkenburg will give a Freedom Lecture at 2 p.m. in which she will address the question: how can you speak out in an unsafe environment? Sterkenburg is deputy head of National Security Analysis at the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV). In her Freedom Lecture, she makes a plea against indifference, linking her family’s story of resistance to her drive to point out the danger of normalizing extreme right-wing ideas.

Visitor counting system

For the first time this year, it is recorded exactly how many visitors are present on the festival site in and around the Machine Factory from minute to minute. “There will be a fence around the festival site with various entrance gates,” Waverijn explains. “An automated system keeps track of exactly when someone enters and when someone leaves the site. That is very interesting for us to know how many visitors are actually present. Then we know exactly whether there is enough security, enough bar capacity and so on.”

Next year

If it were up to Robert Waverijn, it would certainly not be the last time that the Bruisend Zeeland Foundation organizes the Liberation Festival. “Next year we will celebrate eighty years of freedom. This will be an extra large edition of the festival. We therefore have a year to prepare the festival instead of four months like this year.” Waverijn estimates that it will also be easier to organize the festival for a second time. “This year we spent a lot of time developing templates and technical drawings of the festival site. We can use that again next year. It seems to us that next year will be easier in terms of organization because we have already done a lot of work.”