At De Parade in Eindhoven, the audience claps, dances and bounces along

It may belong to Brabant, but it seemed as if last Friday a motocross took place around the site of theater festival De Parade in Eindhoven. In many tents the sound of roaring engines could be heard, but the performers did not give up: pound in, dance and sing! And perhaps also typically Brabant: the audience clapped, danced and swayed along.

De Parade opened its gates in Eindhoven this weekend. From now on, Eindhoven is the fifth city, after Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Amsterdam, where the traveling theater circus settles. It was time, they thought, that the south of the country was also visited, and in particular Eindhoven because it is such a creative city, which also hardly has a festival.

It all started very relaxed on Friday evening, in the atmosphere of a warm summer evening, under leafy trees, in a park next to the Parktheater, the large theater of Eindhoven. In her short opening speech, Parade director Nicole van Vessum was almost touched that they were there again: the theater tents, the carousel, the poffertjes stall, the silent disco — she almost longed for the wooden benches. Like almost everything else, De Parade has not been able to run at full speed for two years in a row. When asked, she said that it would have made no difference if the festival had failed financially. Van Vessum: ‘Yes, there have been moments of great despair, don’t forget that we are all self-employed. But we’re back!’

In Eindhoven, De Parade works together with the Parktheater and with students from the Design Academy and the Sint Lucas Academy. In this way, the focus is mainly on even greater sustainability. John de Weerd, one of De Parade’s programmers: ‘We want to be a festival that is as sustainable as possible. We use green energy as much as possible, the food served here is bio-industry-free, there is no bottled water but tap water, and we use real china and real cutlery so that there is as little plastic waste as possible. When De Parade has left, children from the neighborhood will scatter grass seed on the bare spots.’

De Parade in Eindhoven is one of the smaller in terms of number of tents. This means that the site is pleasantly clear, with an adequate supply of varied theatre. And that’s what it’s all about: the performances. According to De Weerd, a nice mix of young talent and well-known names was sought, but also in terms of ages. The Parademakers range from 20-min to 70-plus.

The latter category clearly manifests itself in the performance The Narrators in which musicians such as Eddie B. Wahr, Kees van der Vooren and Paul Prenen – all ex-Orkater, -De Sissies, -Werktheater et cetera – talk about their illnesses and other human suffering. Heart attacks, near-death smacks, leukemia and liver cirrhosis did not stop the five men from continuing to live. Now they stand in a tent and make cheerful music through their stories about their illnesses. On musical saw, accordion, hammond organ and wind harmonica. It is also special that Terts Brinkhoff is one of the artists: after all, he is Mister Parade, the man who once conceived this entire circus and now has an infectious part in it. The intention is next March with an evening-filling version of The Narrators to go on tour. A combative plan for men with such shattered bodies, but I’m sure they will succeed.

From old to young is a small step, as the performance shows Into the Future †Kaninchen) by Ruben Sanchez. A multidisciplinary live performance in which song, dance, music and visuals come together in a unique way. Sánchez himself is a very good singer, who sings a few poppy songs that are ready for the Eurovision Song Contest. Around him are two musicians, two excellent dancers, and a rabbit that represents the awakening of the inner child within ourselves. It leads to intriguing, but also alienating music theatre.

What immediately became clear on this very first evening is that the performance The Wim Sonneveld complex one of this year’s Parade hits. Actors Tarik Moree and Tim Olivier Somer let their tribute to one of our great artists result in a very funny, witty and original battle about who has the best Wim Sonneveld in terms of imitation. numbers like margot† Uncle Willem’s cat and Mother, I want to be at the revue get a very own version and the nostalgia of the gray turned The village has been replaced by nitrogen emissions. Just as the corniness threatens to take over, the men engage in a physical and verbal duel about the meaning of their own artistic friendship and the theater of today. Witty and handsome, already a pearl on De Parade.