'Are we ready? Yes. Is everything ready? No, far from it, because it is all very complex. But in the end the jubilation now prevails, because until a week and a half ago we didn't even know if we were allowed.' In this Nerd podcast, Emily Ansenk, director of the Holland Festival for the second year, tells Marijn Lems and Wijbrand Schaap about this 74th edition, which finally includes live events again.
There are bumps. For instance, if you attend more performances, you have to test for Corona quite often, even if you are vaccinated. 'That's a minor inconvenience that we would rather not do to the audience. You now have to pass a testing site in RAI beforehand, or in one of the other cities. That's inconvenient, but safety comes first.'
So it cannot be like in Flanders, where a test event in the theatre has a test tent in front of it, says Ansenk: 'We can have a very long philosophical discussion about that, but that is not how it works in the Netherlands. As an individual institution, you can't change something like that. Even if we are a fairly rooted and important performing arts festival, we are actually only a very small player.'
Influence
Actually, that sounds quite modest for a festival that used to attract the entire political and business world. 'What I have learned this year is: only worry about the things you do have influence over, and especially not worry about the things you do not have influence over. As a small player, you can't change the rules. We should be happy long ago that we can live.'
Even if the rules are relaxed and play is allowed again without testing with a maximum of 30 people per venue, the Holland Festival will not go along. 'Everything we have programmed has been done taking into account the one-and-a-half metres. It cannot be done now without testing. With a maximum of 30 people in the auditorium, it won't work out. Ticket sales are also set up for that, and whatever is decided by politicians, we are not going to change that. Many performances are already sold out.'
Listen further here to everything you always wanted to know about this edition of the Holland Festival.
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