Photo by Moon Saris
From the 14th to the 23th of June 2019, Oerol Festival will be synonymous with both Theatre and Music in the Netherlands, but there’s more: experimental performances are also very welcome at Terschelling, a beautiful island in the Wadden Sea which is itself a splendid theatre of one of the most solid cultural events in Europe.
This festival represents the will to combine music, theatre and artistic experimentation in some Dutch villages scattered in the countryside of a heavenly island: putting a balance between tradition and experimentation.
The peculiarity of this fantastic event is intrinsic to its name: Oerol in Frisian (language of Friesland, Dutch territory to which the island of Terschelling belongs to) literally means “Everywhere”: that’s because the myriads of cultural happenings offered are not “fenced” in one place like it happens for traditional festivals, each of them can be enjoyed anywhere on the entirety of the island.
To better explain the concept, it might sometimes happen for a nice cultural event to be held at the port, or once again an excellent experimental concert could be found in the tiny central village of Midsland, and another one instead on the white tropical-like seasides of the north of the island.
Considering the extremely small size of Terschelling, the best way to get around is renting a bicycle for a handful of euros a day and go cycling freely on the numerous bike paths which connect all the cute little towns of the isle: there is even one bike road that follows the coast-line and the scenery is simply breath-taking.
The island’s culture flourishes like the famous Dutch tulips during the 10 days of Festival which welcome more than a hundred of theatrical shows, art installations, concerts and performances. At each edition, dozens of thousands of Dutch people arrive to the usually calm and scarsely populated Terschelling, an earthly paradise of white beaches with a tropical flavour, even if located only a few tens of nautical miles from the coast of Holland.
Getting there is easy, one just needs to book a flight to Amsterdam and then get on a train bound for the port of Harlingen, from there it will take no more than 2 hours by ferry, and there won’t be nicer arrival than the one at the Island of Terschelling, where according to tradition, the island’s sociable inhabitants greet the newcomers with big cheerful gatherings at the harbour during the festival days.
In an island of sincere Natural Beauty…theatre, music and art will meet next June, it would be a mortal sin to miss such beautiful Festival!
Written and translated by Gerardo Iannacci.
All credit for the pictures present in this article, except for cover picture, goes to Gerardo Iannacci.
