10 Days of Festival Boulevard. I threw myself into it. I saw 14 performances, saw a lot of corners of Den Bosch (and Tilburg) up close and experienced more different theatre than usual in six months. I also ate more chips than is good for me, drank more beer than usual and enjoyed eavesdropping on conversations of festival visitors.
Boulevard is a festival supported by the entire city population. Of course, someone will occasionally make a comment about 'my tax money'. Those complainers are in the minority here, because the population is also proud of the way Den Bosch is put in the spotlight. Besides: because the festival has been successful in lowering thresholds, it costs relatively little money to check in one of the tents on the central square whether those pennies of yours have been well spent.
Investment
In and around The Parade under St John's, I did not hear a whimper. Not everything is beautiful, good and perfect; out of 134 performances, I saw 14, of which at least three were substandard. But the funny thing is that that matters less at a festival than in a regular arts season. There, one bad night can discourage a visitor for a very long time, because that one night costs so much more in investment of time and money than those few days you spend at a festival. At a festival, you celebrate the multicolour of art, on a night out you participate in the lottery that is modern art practice as well: it can disappoint, and then that is an expensive setback, not even so much in money, as in tainted mood.
Therefore, it is really only logical to festivalise the art world even further than it already is. That means doing something with those buildings where we show our art during the cold season. Put an end to the loneliness of those buildings. How do we tackle that? I have learned five lessons, which I am happy to share with you.
1: Foodtrucks ok, but don't forget Uncle Joop's Croquettes
A festival is always elitist. Whether it is the Death-Metal elite at a Death-Metal festival, the French-Bauer elite at a French-Bauer festival or the Dutch elite at the Holland Festival: it is precisely the feeling that you share something together, that together you know more than the rest, that for a moment you are "among us", that is part of the festival success. Those elites are internally quite differentiated. So make sure you make the wet and dry diverse enough, because food and drink is something people are less flexible with, than with art: expensive veg burgers made from Chia seeds: do it, but put an old-fashioned chip shop next to it. Once in Den Bosch, I was in a hurry between two performances, and the queue for the luxury fries was too long. Fortunately, there was a regular chip shop just outside the venue. Less super-quality, but the stomach was filled, the visitor reassured
2: Do a lot
Boulevard has 134 programme sections: an average of 13 different new things per day. That could be too much, but it's not. Everyone can choose, and the excess also makes people more receptive to something new. As long as you keep prices affordable, culture shopping becomes easier, and you lower thresholds.
3: Turn that theatre into a festival palace
In Den Bosch, the Theater aan de Parade was temporarily closed due to the Bossche asbestos ghost. As a result, the local city theatre could not join the party. Something that happened in other years. So we take a look at how they do it in Utrecht. And we won't look at the Stadsschouwburg there for a moment, but at multi-music venue TivoliVredenburg. That has become a 21st-century building, which actually only really comes to life when something happens in all the different halls. And that is exactly how we need to organise going out everywhere. Every night should be a compact festival, every night should have too much on offer for totally different audiences and as close together as possible. Check out how the Paris Boulevards flourished, or 42nd street, ever.
4: Mix all the arts
Letter people are different from image people and dance people have little with theatre. Lovers of modern classical have nothing to do with punk. Yet, when they come together at a festival they turn into 'festival-goers' and can sniff each other out. It works. Sometimes the gulf deepens, but more often a bridge is built somewhere. And if not: as long as it's a pleasant day, it matters little.
5: Subsidise a punk band
All this costs handsomely, of course. But it doesn't even have to cost that much more than what we spent on it 6 years ago. As long as we make sure that this investment in 'festival palaces for all', for 'popular parties in the square' is also clearly accessible to all. So remove those barriers. And, if nothing else helps: subsidise a punk band. For all the discussion about subsidies, that may have been the smartest move by the much-troubled Performing Arts Fund. If a successful punk band can get a subsidy, the advocates of "success pays for itself, just look at pop music" will have a much harder time making their point. And that's a good thing. It throws the discussion about what we want with our top art nice and open again, like a near victory in Rio does with sport.
Learn anything else yourself? Let us know below.
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