The Kunstlijn in Haarlem is a three day event during which many artists open their doors to the public. There are also many exhibitions in less common locations, even shops cleared their windows to make room for art. One of the small, hard to find, but easy to stumble upon parks is the Wijngaardtuin. It was one of the many exhibition grounds and the neighbours also organised a good entertainment.
Saturday, November the 5th, the Singer Songwriter Cirkel Haarlem took care of the acoustic line up. Barbera van der Kaay opened the afternoon and even her biggest fan, who is already four and a half three quarters old, took the satge as her special guest. Autumn finally showed it’s cold shoulder to the world. All artists had to deal with cold fingers and guitars which sang out of tune. Joshua Aaron, who is most comfortable with a keyboard, had to deal with the challenges his guitar presented by detuning itself during the songs. The weather was not polite to Milan van der Meer. In the middle of her set it started to rain. The organisation had setup a big party tent infront of which was played. Within a minute everybody was inside gathered around Milan for a cosy second half of her set. Dutch Cassidy, playing in a tent while it rains, will take you to the great wide open of the Haarlemmermeer, his dreams and the past where life wasn’t a rosegarden. Lorena Visintainer was the last one to have to deal with cold fingers. She brought a good mix of her own work and a few covers. A perfect ending of the afternoon.
Sunday, November the 6th, was another rainy day, but the program at the WIjngaardtuin continued. It started with poetry. Nuel Gieles, as he is the current city poet, started. His set included a very nice celabration of our industrial are from which cranes and chocolate was spread over the world, besides medicine which we still do with two companies. Next up was the previous city poet Sylvia Hubers with nice poetry with a pun about our town. Apparently we get a Vlemisch city poet next year. Agreed, we are the most Flemish town outside of Belgium, but… there must be plenty of poets around who would like to take on the heavy responsibility of becoming Haarlems city poet for a couple of years. MOLCK, Maandagochtend Oude Lullen Koffie Club, thought so too. They presented themselves as candidates for the important job of city poet. This was their first performance. I was fast, loud and still organised in some way with five poets performing at the same time and the leader of the ‘band’ conducting. It was their first and last performance. I hope they bring an opera to the stage next year.
HIT is the Haarlems Interscholair Toernooi. It’s a competition in art. Vera Moerbeek started with very nice poetry which was a strong contrast with MOLCK. Next it was time agian for music! Renée Schnater and Robin Vreugdenhil, who missed their third member Myrthe, did a good version of ‘Sukkel voor de Liefde‘ and even made a Bieber song worth listening too! Last but not least was Kim Nanninga! In the cosy environment of the party tent she brought her beautiful songs. Just go and see her when she visits your area.
The Wijngaardtuin is a small park. Besides providing a stage for singers, songwriters and poets, the garden was tunred into one big exhibition area. With stone statues by Charlotte Groutars and field of small objects by Didi Overman. Did also made a giant curtain with hand painted text. It was gently blowing in the wind and rain creating a new reality. Another awesome piece was by Guust Persoon. Just check the pictures. Of course one could not miss ‘Shop Till You Drop’ by Kees Juffermans. The work I loved most was by Piet Zwaanswijk and Jessica Assmann. It is called ‘No Mercy’ and would do well on stage with the band Ghost.
The exhibitions and performances were not possible without the hard work and TLC of Margo Rademakers and her neighbours.
The best way to enjoy the photo’s is to click on the ‘View full size’ link at the bottom right of the screen below the photo.
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