They have been busy for months: the volunteers of the Koepeltjesfestival in Eelde. The music festival that is taking place for the tenth time this year is, according to many, a keeper.
After a long preparation, Marga de Vries, secretary of the Koepeltjesfestival Eelde foundation, is enjoying the music festival that is in full swing. The run-up consists of a lot of meetings, organizing things like coins and volunteers and applying for permits (not her hobby). The moment the volunteers gossip with each other as usual and younger and older happy faces determine the Eelder streetscape, Marga is a happy person.
No audition necessary
For the tenth edition of the music festival, the entire municipality of Tynaarlo will turn out this year. For the first time, musicians from all over the municipality were allowed to register. Proof of musical performance is not required at the Koepeltjesfestival. A link with the municipality of Tynaarlo is. The board is not that strict about that either, Marga knows. “It is enough if a band member has ever lived in Eelde.” Thirty bands signed up for the festival. Some of them were placed on the reserve list.
On the square at the Hoofdweg in front of café Boelens, loud music blasts from the speakers at the Easybookings stage. Banale Nonsense Therapy sings about fries, frikandellen and other greasy snacks for only a handful of enthusiasts. “Do you like it?” asks the singer – a little bit of desperation in his voice. Fortunately, the few fans that are there are of the super loyal kind. “Yeah,” they shout. The arms also go up in the air.
Nervous for hubby
Marga, meanwhile, is a little nervous for her performance hubby Derk. Eelde is the setting for the very first performance of the B Sides. “One of the band members has written a lot of their own music,” she says. Except for a recording on the mobile phone, she has not heard it before. She is also looking forward to the closing of the evening, the party band of local celebrity Dennis Franke. “Always cosy. The village will come loose tonight, you know!”
In addition to Marga, Marc and Mieke also do their very best to give their fellow villagers a nice day. Marc Land, who worked in the event industry for many years, is the indispensable technician and also coordinator of everything that needs to be purchased and arranged.
After the organization tried for years to attract him to the club (“couldn’t, always had to work at the TT”), he gave in in his first TT-free year. “Doing something for the village is always good. And I think it’s great that you manage to put something like this together in a short time”, he motivates his volunteer work.
keeper
Mieke Heijkens and her friends have a clear mission: “More street theatre!” As AA (Roller Coaster Amigos), the ladies come up with a fun act for the festival every year. “We were once the grannies and last year, as festival police, we handed out compliments,” she says. This year it’s spicy with the homemade costumes including wig. “We have performed twice, but it is much too hot,” she sighs.
While the audience enjoys a bite to eat or a beer in the sun, Marga also shows what the construction crew does for work. They made a box for lost and found objects, a light pole and all the seating areas on the square itself. The project for the coming year is a private toilet van. Everything to ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy the free festival.
Marga even cries a little when asked what makes the Koepeltjesfestival so beautiful. “When you see so many people are happy and we have so much fun with the volunteers..” Whether the Koepeltjesfestival is here to stay in Eelde is almost a rhetorical question. “Yes,” it sounds decidedly. “Even if I have to do it all by myself.”