Henk Jongebloed, the founder and creative director of FestiValderAa, received a royal award today. Jongebloed is partly saying goodbye to the festival: after this year he will only do the theater programming. Mayor Anno Wietze Hiemstra pinned the decorations on him on the last day of the tenth edition of the festival.
Little Oerol
Henk Jongebloed worked as a volunteer at Oerol for years when he got plans in 2010 to bring a cultural festival to the Drentsche Aa area. The festival was named FestiValderAa and had its first edition in 2011. It was an immediate hit: more than 4,500 visitors went to the Drenthe steam valley landscape. The theater and music festival has now become a permanent fixture on Drenthe’s cultural agenda and attracts 9,500 visitors every year.
Cultural festival for young and old
On the last evening of the anniversary edition of FestivalderAa, Mayor Hiemstra praised Jongebloed’s eye for local talent, connecting role and enthusiasm. Listening to quite a few visitors, the mayor said that the festival is a cultural party for young and old: “It is small-scale, but great in terms of programming. Without you, the festival would not have grown into what it is today.” Henk Jongebloed has been appointed Member of the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Jongebloed admits that it is difficult to let go of ‘his baby’. “Fortunately, the team gave me a lamb with the beautiful name Henk. That is a gift that I have to take care of for 12 years, but I am very happy with it.”
The past few years have been ‘a step in the dark’ for him. “I had experience with Oerol, but not with programming and organizing. It has grown over the years. It has been a wonderful process.”
“I’m glad I’m still involved,” continues Jongebloed. “To say goodbye altogether now would be too much of a bad thing.”