Night of Poetry celebrates 40th edition - Former Poet Laureate Babs Gons joins the Night editorial team

On 7 October, the 40th edition of the Night of Poetry will take place as the conclusion of the ILFU Festival. In the Grote Zaal of TivoliVredenburg, Ester Naomi Perquin and Piet Piryns will present, as always, about twenty poets and a handful of 'entr'actes'. The first confirmed names of poets include two veterans who were already there at the first Night in 1980, Jean Pierre Rawie and Bart Chabot, as well as two new talents for whom this will be the first Night: Mahat Arab and Alara Adilow. Eva Gerlach will also be present at this anniversary edition. From her is this year's 'night line': 'Shall we make confetti of ourselves and go swirling, festive and unfocused.' The rest of the lineup will be announced in the coming months. Ticket sales started today.

The 40th Night will be as special as the previous 39 nights, with about 20 rock-solid poets and a handful of musicians, theatre-makers and circus acts. And of course there is the Great Hall; that wonderful beehive where visitors can buzz in and out. There is also another 'night bundle' for every visitor, with work by the performing poets.

Babs Gons

Early this year Babs Gons joined the editorial board, which further consists of founder Anneke van Dijk, journalist Piet Piryns, ILFU programmers Michaël Stoker and Sophie Kok and poets Ingmar Heytze and Ester Naomi Perquin. Babs Gons is a writer, poet and organiser of several poetry and spoken word programmes. She has been on stage for decades with her poems, which were first collected in 2021 in her debut Do it anyway. Babs Gons presented programmes for the ILFU for many years and in 2019 she made her debut at The Night of Poetry. From September, Babs Gons will serve as Poet Laureate of the Netherlands for two years.

Jubilee

In the run-up to this 40th edition, we do celebrate the anniversary with a few extras. Poet Maud Vanhauwaert has a teaching package for secondary schools. Some 180 schoolchildren visit The Night every year and Maud's 'Gates to the Night' teaching package prepares them to become accomplished Night visitors. There will also be a podcast series in which the goldmine of almost 300 hours of audio from The Night is mined, and a themed issue of the literary magazine Dutch Monthly. Finally, presenters Piet Piryns and Ester Naomi Perquin a festive anniversary quartet put together with which you will stroll through 40 years of Night of Poetry in a playful and educational way.

Children's Night of Poetry

Another anniversary: for the fifth time, De Kindernacht van de Poëzie will take place on the eve of De Nacht voor grote mensen and in the middle of the Children's Book Week, on 6 October. In the Utrecht Library, readers include. Tjitske Jansen, Erik van Os and Najiba Abdellaoui their most beautiful poems. Iven Cudogham, author of the annual Children's Book Week song, presents the Children's Night. And absolutely spectacular: afterwards, the young visitors are allowed to pitch their tents and stay overnight in the Bieb, among the books!

ILFU

ILFU (International Literature Festival Utrecht) organises an annual two-week festival in September, focusing on literature. ILFU also invites writers during the rest of the year. The online platform ilfu.com publishes daily stories, poems, interviews and essays and is now supported by 1200+ members. The next edition of the festival will take place from September 23 until 7 October 2023 and will conclude with the 40th edition of the Night of Poetry.