8 enticing words about Festival Boulevard.

It is the most ambitious summer festival in the Netherlands: Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch aims to showcase not only the finest theatre theatre theatre in the low countries, but also the fattest shows, and youngest new creators and the merriest bus drivers. And all that in 10 days, in once tad where the local newspaper does its best to promote culture as scary as possible to make. We briefly summarise it for you in eight enticing words.

Louis

Like Louis van Gaal coming to coach the local FC for four years. That's how big the news is for the Bossche culture sector. Mayor Rombouts of Den Bosch announced it casually in his opening speech of Festival Boulevard, having actually appeared in the local press back in March. Johan Simons, the great man who has put Dutch theatre on the international map for some 30 years, is coming to Den Bosch to work with young creators, and to establish his Jeroen Willems acting school there. He will do so in one of the last frayed edges the Brabant city has: the site of De Heus, a collection of old sheds and factory buildings next to the Verkadefabriek.

Anarchy

In anticipation of that new development, Theatre Festival Boulevard has already added a new hotspot. Geert Overdam, who this year bids farewell as artistic director of the festival that once began as Boulevard of Broken Dreams, opened the area to art students and other young creators, who are now allowed to do whatever they want there. The beautiful weather helped on opening night, of course, but the loose anarchic atmosphere does well anyway as an alternative to the beer- and food-tent-laden festival heart on De Parade under St John's.

Tits

Once upon a time, that was a fair where 'The Woman with the Three Tits' featured prominently. Dries Verhoeven did not want to be next to that. The artist who developed individual 'experience theatre' in the Netherlands told this in his opening remarks. He praised Geert Overdam for keeping his promise that the Woman with the Three Tits would disappear from the square. Geert Overdam transformed the square into a modern cultural heart, with steel building timbers and real art. Overdam's predecessor, apparently the one with the three tits that Dries was so against, went elsewhere in Brabant with the Circus Festival Circo Circolo.

Women

The chances of the Three Tits ever returning to Festival Boulevard have become even slimmer now that Geert Overdam is succeeded by Viktorien van Hulst. According to her Amsterdam friends, her move as a member of Toneelgroep Amsterdam's artistic team to that provincial festival is a step backwards, but she sees it differently. She is looking forward to making the festival much more of an incubator for new talent, without neglecting the plushness and grand spectacle that Boulevard is also famous for.

Geert

Overdam himself actually wants to usher in the new era after him already. Lest anyone can later accuse him of rigidly sticking to his own form, he boasts that he was already betting on Van Hulst's innovation last year. All his successor has to do is follow the path he has set, and all will be well. We are curious to see how Viktorien will still put her own spin on it. In any case, like Overdam, she will have to achieve the maximum with minimal means.

Bus

Whether a festival should be more unique than other festivals is mainly of interest to journalists and subsidisers. It makes no difference to the public. That insight, fortunately also shared by the new director, results in a great festival in den Bosch anyway. With its enormous density of bars and terraces, the city is already buzzing, but the influx of hipsters, artists and more affluent suburban art lovers makes the city just that little bit more exciting in those first weeks of August. Although high and low culture don't really mix, for the bus drivers who transport spectators between the various festival sites, the festival is an annual celebration. Not just because of Frits, who has been accommodating passengers for a hundred years.

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Vos

And of course there is theatre. He festival opened with a splendid performance by the Flemish company FC Bergman. The play 'Van de Vos', based on the medieval animal story 'Van den Vos Reynaerde' has become a macabre horror show, where writer Josse de Pauw gives the actors minimal words to achieve maximum effect. De Pauw already knows how to suggest a lot, but thanks to top actors like Dik Roofthooft and Viviane de Muynck, the play becomes truly dangerous. Roofthooft and De Muynck are actors who dare to cross the boundaries of the cosy, and that makes Van de Vos a play that could very well draw full theatres for three years. The play was performed in Amsterdam earlier this year, but sold out there in half an hour. So fans can still rush to Den Bosch to experience this parable about dark temptations around a swimming pool.

More

More on the 10-day programme of the unofficial opening of the new art season later. Still involve until 17 August 2014.