Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival Groningen 16/26 aug 2012
Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival Groningen is an international arts festival in the north of The Netherlands. Theatre - Dance - Music - Film - Media - Circus and more
Web:
http://www.facebook.com/noorderzonnl
http://www.noorderzon.nl
http://www.twitter.com/noorderzonnl #nzon12
Welcome to our Planet! If you are visiting for the first time, then it might be useful to first understand a couple of things about us.
The Noorderzon Festival takes place each August. The performances we present range from the latest international contemporary work to new productions from the North Netherlands region, and from small container-based ‘parade’-style performances to free music and other activities in the park. We try to mix being cutting edge with being accessible to all. We see no reason why this should be seen as contradictory.
There is a lively and highly social festival ‘heart’ in a beautiful ‘English’ park 5 minutes from the centre of town, called the Noorderplantsoen, where we not only present many performances in tents, but we also build up several temporary lakeside bars and restaurants. The late summer evenings here a popular destination for Groningers and visitors alike.
But we also programme increasingly into theatres and other found spaces in the city centre and further afield. We call this side of our festival ‘DownTown’. What started as an experiment in 2002, has now grown to become as much a feature of our festival as the park itself.
Despite our often ambitious programming, we work hard at being open to everybody. We have kept our ticket prices low – our base rate has been unchanged for the last 7 years, and we have even
brought our prices down for this ‘financially difficult’ year - and we have developped significant extra programmes to cater to new groups, such as our Film Programme, our Literature Programme and
our Children’s Programme.
There is no membership fee to belong to the Noorderzon ‘club’. Entrance to the park is free, as is this programme book. A quarter of our festival activities are completely free of charge, and another
quarter is no more than 5 euros.
The Noorderzon public is one of our greatest strengths. Openminded, whilst still being critical, often ready to try new things, generally patient when we ‘get it wrong’, often appreciative when we ‘get it right’. We like to think that our festival brings out the best in our wonderful city, but of course, that is for you to judge!