Throwback In The Name Of Peace

Spread across two stages (garden and concert hall), Equal Idiots, KEG, Marathon, Cucamaras, Wax Head, Knives, Magnetic Spacemen, BARBEE, and Badminton showed and sounded out what freedom is all about.

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Relive the day with the amazing photos by Thijs Blom and be sure to check out the aftermovie below by Neyture Film Productions.

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Also, it's worth reading the extensive, beautiful review of the festival 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. He also recited this poem later on the stage in the courtyard.

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freedom follows peace

have I failed because I thought it could be different

when I refused to learn who my enemy would become
when I refused to take up arms against people

I do not know

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I did not participate in the growth of fear
and not in the growth of the arms industry
I do not participate in power politics
I do not participate in better than you
or richer than you
or more needy than you
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but the brown and the mire
are in charge

and in all their wisdom
they have turned on the war machine

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they have a bigger dick than you

are blonder than you
piss and spit further than you
and they threaten

come on if you dare
I will destroy you

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they preach their invented truth

forgetting in the process
that victims

fall everywhere

also among friends
also among family
also among their own family

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damn

is there really no one left who says no

who says that this threat cuts both ways

that freedom isn't paid for with violence

but with broken people

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80 years without war sounds fantastic

but it isn't factually correct

The Netherlands has participated in more than forty wars

of which more than thirty

under the banner

of peace

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war kills and maims
even if you call it peace
and there are still soldiers

working on their recovery
and countries are commemorating the suffering

from long ago
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80 years of peace is a difficult story

war and peace are neighbors

Ukraine is a day or two's drive away

and of course we have to help them

my answers
other than fuck Putin
don't bring peace

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a genocide is taking place in Gaza
that would not have been out of place during the war

over 80 years ago
we say nothing about it
for fear of being called antisemitic

and disrupting trade relations

I call them cowards

and complicit

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and we, too

often find ourselves
in the wrong places

and in doing so, reap the fear
that we previously sowed

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sometimes we must protect
ourselves as well as others
but who sacrifices themselves for that
heroes or fools

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and does the coward join in
I am a coward

I am not in the wrong

neither are you

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doubting what is true and false
right and wrong
does not make you wrong
it makes you think

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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 those in power

there is nothing to celebrate
only to realize and to resist

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unite with friends

stand up against intolerance

stand up to fascists

stand up to populists

stand up to the brownshirts

stand up to all those assholes

who fight your peace

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stand up and earn the right

to celebrate freedom

with your brothers and sisters

your friends and your neighbors

and with everyone you don't know

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stand up and say no

and celebrate freedom

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