Throwback In Vredes Naam

Divided over two stages (garden and concert hall), Equal Idiots, KEG, Marathon, Cucamaras, Wax Head, Knives, Magnetic Spacemen, BARBEE and Badminton showed and heard what freedom is about.

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Enjoy this for a while with Thijs Blom's amazing photos and be sure to check out the aftermovie by Neyture Film Productions below.

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Also nice to the comprehensive, beautiful review of the festival can be read on Muziscene.

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Prior to the festival, as part of 80 years of freedom, an informal lunch was organized in the Burgercafé where city poet Martin Knaapen recited the poem below.

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freedom follows peace

I failed because I thought it could be done differently

when I refused to learn who was going to be my enemy
when I refused to take up arms against people

that I don't know

I did not participate in the growth of anxiety
and not to the growth of the arms industry
I do not participate in power politics
I'm not participating in better than you
or richer than you
or more need than you

but the brown and the mud
his turn

and in all their wisdom
they turned on the war machine

they have a bigger cock than you

are blonder than you
pee and spit farther than you
and they threaten

come on if you dare
I will destroy you

they preach their invented truth

thereby forgetting
that victims

fall everywhere

even among friends
also among family
also among their family

goddamn

is there no one else who says no

who says that the threat goes both ways

that freedom is not paid for by force

but with broken people

80 years of no war sounds fantastic

but is not factually correct

The Netherlands participated in more than forty wars

including more than thirty

under the flag

of peace

war kills and maimes
even if you make peace for it
and there are still soldiers

busy with their recovery
and countries commemorate suffering

from a long time ago

80 years of peace is a difficult story

war and peace are neighbors

Ukraine is a day or two away

and of course we have to help them

my answers
other than screw Putin
do not bring peace

a genocide is taking place in Gaza
who had not missed out on the war

over 80 years ago
we say nothing about it
for fear of being called an anti-Semite

and disrupting trade relations

cowards, I call them.

and complicit

and we too

visit us regularly
in the wrong places

and thereby reap the fear
that we sowed earlier

sometimes we have to protect
ourselves as good as others
but who will sacrifice themselves for that?
heroes or idiots

and does the coward participate

I am a coward

I am not wrong

neither do you

doubt about true and false
law and injustice
don't make you wrong
it makes you think

freedom follows peace

celebrating 80 years of freedom therefore seems important

but because peace is far away

and freedom is under pressure

from populists and rulers

there is nothing to celebrate
only to realize and resist

unite with friends

stand up to intolerance

stand up to fascists

stand up to populists

stand up to the brown power

stand up to all those assholes

who fight your peace

stand up and earn the right

celebrate freedom

with your brothers and sisters

your friends and your neighbors

and with all you don't know

get up and say no

and celebrate freedom

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