TivoliVredenburg is itself a festival

Get lost festively. In what new building is it still possible? It is possible in Utrecht's TivoliVredenburg, the building that has now been officially open for a year. Saturday 13 June marked that anniversary with a repeat of the opening party. Because that was such an unexpected success. During that repeat, it once again became clear why: TivoliVredenburg gives new meaning to the term festival.

It is a wonder box, that colossus at Vredenburg, now still in the middle of the huge construction pit that the square and the sadly surviving remains of Hoog Catharijne have been for a few years. Square on the outside, everything on the inside. 6 halls, I believe, but there may be more. People may yet discover those, in a few years' time. Foyers and bars, stairs that turn out to be bleachers and corridors that always end up somewhere, but you never know exactly where. Architect Hertzberger has created a building that a year after its opening may have a few sound leaks, but otherwise has everything a cultural building should have.

You can see people, watch people, meet people and, above all, lose people, and you can best experience this when there is something going on in all the rooms of the complex: that the Radio Philharmonic is playing in the main hall, Triggerfinger in the pop hall, something beautifully fragile world music-like by Ernst Reijseger in Cloud Nine and six double basses trying to disrupt the natural vibration of the Hertz, the chamber music bonniere.

It's loose, it's noisy, and for the best experience of Telemann's work by Holland Baroque Society you may indeed need absolute silence, but what an atmosphere, what a total fusion of culture, and what a lot of beautiful things are being made.

This building has a future because the girls who have been waiting all this time for a hand from Kenny B to talk Dutch to them can also catch a glimpse of that other music, if only because they are curious where that escalator on the right leads.

TivoliVredenburg should be able to allow this total chaos once every month. Costs a bit, but also delivers untold benefits. What could be better than having a continuous festival in the city? TivoliVredenburg is begging for it. TivoliVredenburg is itself a festival. Every penny you put in to keep it alive more than earns you back as a city. If only in happy faces.

Attended: We are 1, festival at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht on 13 June 2015