While festivals are collapsing and struggling, Grasnapolsky in Groningen is expanding with Grasduinen. What does the festival add to the already extensive offering?
Suddenly the environment fills with a rumbling, rhythmic engine sound. It ripples the water of the Westerwoldse Aa near Bad Nieuweschans and birds fly en masse in fright. We – a group of about fifteen people – set off on the towboat of Jelle Smit (57) from Nieuw Beerta. It feels like a relaxed school trip for adults, but we are on an expedition with the new Grasduinen festival.
Celebrating Groningen’s heritage
This will be held for the first time this Saturday in De Graanre republic in the Oude Remise in Bad Nieuweschans. It comes from the Grasnapolsky organization, which takes place every year in the old straw cardboard factory De Toekomst in Scheemda. “Grasduinen tells the stories of the environment,” says festival director Mariska Berrevoets. “Each edition delves into the heritage of a different location in Groningen. We speak to the people who live there and work with entrepreneurs from the area. The festival celebrates the place and heritage in Groningen.”
Visitors can put together their own day program from various expeditions, such as a bus trip to the Johannes Kerkhovenpolder arable farm, village walks with music and spoken word performances by singer Marlene Bakker and poet Willemijn van de Walle and guided tours with tasting through De Graanre republic. In the evening, all visitors come together in the Oude Remise for food and music. Is there another festival that inspired all this? Berrevoets: “No, I can’t think of anything that looks like this.”
Half of the visitors are local
The boat trip with Jelle Smit’s tugboat was supposed to sail to Nieuw Statenzijl to continue walking to the Kiekkaaste, but due to lack of time the walk to the Kiekkaaste has been canceled. The daily schedule of the festival is strict: most expeditions are from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM and 4:00 PM to about 6:00 PM. During the day it is quiet in ‘headquarters’ the Oude Remise.
“It is beautiful how this festival combines history, culture and entertainment,” says Marja Bernts (60) from Den Bosch during the boat trip. She and her friend Claire Geene (60) from Amsterdam are spending a weekend in Groningen for the Rolling Stones exhibition in the Groninger Museum and include a day of Grasduinen. They both can’t think of another festival that is quite like it.
The two are in the minority on the boat, many of the passengers are from the area and have received a free ticket from the organization. “Half of the three hundred visitors are from the area, the other half are not,” says Berrevoets.
Pulling people out of the city
Daphne and Deirdre Rademaker (both 31) grew up near Bad Nieuwschans. “We very consciously continued to live here,” says Daphne. “I have two small children, they now attend the school I attended. We are doing well here and I am very proud of this place.” On the boat she discusses with a fellow villager a house that is for sale in the area, but which unfortunately she was not able to buy.
Korine (62) and Jan Willem Wit (64) come from Ganzendijk. “We moved here from Haarlem three years ago because it has the cleanest air in the Netherlands and Korine has lung problems. Things are going much better now,” says Jan Willem. The two clearly enjoy the boat trip and are always at the front when stories are told.
The later it gets, the more young visitors flow from the train at the station next to the festival location. Berrevoets: “The average age of Grasduinen is higher than that of Grasnapolsky, but we notice that we can attract young people out of the city. It sometimes surprises me when people say they have never been to De Toekomst or the Oude Remise.”
‘Come along, I’ll show you why I’m in love’
Grasnapolsky’s program also includes expeditions every year, why is Berrevoets and her team so keen to tell more stories of Groningen? “I have been in love with Groningen since my parents moved here when I was 18. My friends always asked: why are you with your parents so often? Then I said, come along and you will see. I want to show the undiscovered places of Groningen to more people. I really enjoy seeing how much residents enjoy sharing the legends of their village and how much everyone appreciates that we do this.”
Grasnapolsky will take place in Scheemda for the fifth time in March 2024, previously it was held five times in Utrecht. “We are now being asked whether we are going to move again. We’re not going to do that. Just like the residents, we are rooted in Groningen and want to continue to tell why the Groningen land is land to stay.” She doesn’t find it exciting to expand her festival at this time. “This is so small, we organized this in two months. And we’re just good at this. We want to make more use of that.”
Next edition in the spring
The next edition will be at a different location, but as far as Niels Grootenboer, director of De Graanre republic, is concerned, that is not necessary. “We are far from done here,” he says. He was the one who introduced skipper Jelle Smit to the organization and many farmers with whom De Graanre republic works are also involved in Grasduinen. “We also tell stories about the area ourselves, but we couldn’t organize it like this. The people at Grasnapolsky are real researchers.”
Berrevoets: “We have countless places where we can organize Grasduinen. The next one will be in the spring, when everything is in bloom. Maybe we’ll even do one in the city sometime.”