These are exciting times for Het Podium in Hoogeveen. After a major internal renovation, the pop stage wants to be ready for the future. This requires a lot of municipal money. ,,It is now or never.”
With wide arm gestures, director Pieter-Bas Rebers tries to paint a picture of The Stage of the Future.
“Look, this will all be open, with changing rooms on the ground floor, a larger upstairs room with associated bar and a central main entrance for visitors. Oh yes, and here comes a new staircase.”
He goes full steam ahead for the total renovation plan. ‘The big story’, in his words. “Otherwise you run the risk of being overtaken by music venues with better facilities.”
Bit of wood string
In short: the structural condition of the music venue on Schutstraat is perfectly fine, but the layout, routing and inventory are outdated. Lots of second-hand stuff, dated equipment. A bit of a piece of wood, although the audience does show up faithfully.
The facilities are substandard, especially for artists. To paint a picture: Het Podium welcomes a big name in November. Singer-songwriter and blues guitarist Ana Popovic will perform. But if the Serbian-American artist has to pee, he can’t do it in the dressing room. She then has to go through the public to the toilets for the visitors.
,,That is no longer of this time,” says Rebers. He is at the helm of the Cultuurhuis Foundation, in which Het Podium and theater De Tamboer collaborate. The first is entering a crucial phase. What will the future of the pop stage of Drenthe look like?
‘Now or never’
Rebers: ,,It is now or never. We must not miss the boat in terms of professionalism. The requirements that are now placed on music venues are very different from when this building was built in 1989. If you do nothing, bands and artists will choose other venues.”
So the community is looking at it with hope. Or who wants to pull the cut for a thorough makeover. So much more than just the expansion of the upper room from (currently) 250 to a maximum of 400 visitors.
Manager/programmer Wessel de Vries of Het Podium goes through the wish list. “The larger upstairs room is a must,” he says. “It is increasingly difficult to continue to offer quality within the financial possibilities. Then you need more income, so visitors.”
Because artists and bands are getting more and more expensive. De Vries: ,,Growth to 350 to 400 visitors offers us more financial scope. Many acts also find that capacity attractive.”
350,000 euros
An amount of 350,000 euros has been made available for the internal expansion of the hall space, from the provincial Regional Cities Fund. But that’s not enough, De Vries posits. ,, Dressing rooms without toilets, air conditioning and shower are no longer of this time. And the existing bar is actually too small for 250 visitors.”
Safety for employees and volunteers must also be improved. In the plans, the side entrance at Schutsplein is specifically intended for staff. In the future, visitors will have to use the main entrance on Schutstraat. In this way, employees on their way to the safe no longer have to walk through the public with cash.
There are also a few ideas about better visibility from the Schutstraat. De Vries: ,,You can now easily drive past that. You could do something with the facade, extra windows for example, and a clearer entrance.”
‘Maximum use’
According to director Rebers, a total, integral renovation solves several problems in one fell swoop. “It greatly improves the functionality of the building,” he says. “You used to have other users here, such as Scala and youth work, and compartmentalization was desirable. But it is now a completely different situation: one user who wants to make maximum use of the indoor space.”
You can’t get that complete picture with those 3.5 tons from the province. So extra money is needed from the municipality, which also owns the building. How much extra? Rebers does not want to say everything about that yet. Not possible, he says, because all offers have not yet been received. But it is clear that it is about tons more.
More subsidy
In addition to money for the internal renovation of Het Podium, Rebers is also asking for more subsidy. Now the cultural center, which does not pay rent for the building, earns about 150,000 euros a year. ,,If I deduct the personnel costs, there is hardly anything left”, says Rebers, who pleads for at least a doubling.
“We will need more permanent staff in the future to ensure healthy business operations. We already rely heavily on De Tamboer, so in the end Het Podium De Tamboer costs money. You should not want to.”
Brooding chicken
The shutters will remain closed at the municipality for a while. Something about brooding chicken and do not disturb. According to responsible alderman Mark Tuit, the egg is laid around the summer. The council must then weigh up the additional financing and coverage when discussing the new municipal budget. An extra investment is already taken into account, but how high will it be?
Rebers describes the talks with the municipality as positive. “I sense the will to improve accommodation and capacity, also among council factions that we have invited here to explain our plans. But the municipality is also a bit cautious. The financial problems in 2020 are still echoing. Still, I am confident that a good proposal will be put on the table.”
Cross out one culture complex
A lot can change in a few years. Before the municipality’s financial misery became apparent, Hoogeveen was still investigating the arrival of one cultural complex. The intention was that De Tamboer, the library and Het Podium would come under one roof. That would cost 29 million euros, of which 15 million euros for construction. In 2020, that research was stopped because Hoogeveen was financially broke.
It was then decided to keep Het Podium at its current location, mainly because an attempt to move to the vacant building on the Markt had failed. At the time, Rebers thought that was a bitter pill to swallow (‘it was a beautiful location’), but he sees a bright future for the current building on Schutstraat. At least: if the municipality embraces the total renovation plan.
That, Rebers and De Vries emphasize, is also good for the supply; the artists and bands that want to be here, the different genres. Although Het Podium traditionally programs a relatively large number of metal bands, today there is also plenty of room for rock, pop, blues and even jazz.
metal and jazz
,,About 20 percent of the bands is metal, we don’t want to deny our history”, says De Vries. “But we also program quite broadly, even (stand up) comedy. Personally, I always find it funny to hear hard guitars on Friday evening and relaxed jazz on Sunday afternoon.”
From Het Baken to De Box: turbulent times
The predecessors of pop venue Het Podium were youth center De Box and neighborhood and club house Het Baken. The latter was located on the Grote Kerkstraat in Hoogeveen in the 1970s and 1980s, in the old presbytery of the Reformed Church. Where the reverend had his room before, was the bar.
Initially, Het Baken was intended for ‘fringe-church’ young people, in order to involve them in church and faith in this way. The striking building, owned by the church, grew into a youth center and also became the home for children’s clubs, work for the elderly and hobby clubs.
Over the years, Het Baken saw many young people and associations drop out because facilities came elsewhere. The center deteriorated and became stigmatized as a ‘drug den’. The center made the news in a negative way more and more often.
At the end of the 1980s, the rent was canceled and Het Baken closed. However, that did not go without a hitch. A number of young people occupied the building, destroyed the interior and started a fire. The ME had to be involved to get the young people off the roof.
In order to keep a youth center in Hoogeveen, a different location was sought in collaboration with the municipality. At the end of 1989, a new building on Schutstraat opened its doors: De Box.
The intention was to give De Box a different character from Het Baken, with more emphasis on cultural activities for young people. But the new center had a difficult start, because the old group of Het Baken did not recognize themselves in De Box and there were (too) few new young people. The programming relied heavily on punk.
In 1997 the name changed to Het Podium and the course was changed. The cultural offer broadened, but the financial basis remained shaky. In 2012, Het Podium was faced with cutbacks and in 2016 another petition was started to keep Het Podium afloat. The municipality wanted to reduce the subsidy.