Adrian Kaye op Spoffin 2024

Amersfoort bids farewell to Spoffin with record number of visits

 26-08-2024

Going out with a bang: during the last weekend of August, Spoffin festival took place and Amersfoort could not ignore it. For the fourteenth and final time, the festival for street and location theatre treated the city to a special and diverse programme full of artists from home and abroad. The most diverse street theatre acts presented themselves at various locations in and around the Amersfoort city centre, and with that, Spoffin 2024 attracted a record number of visitors: approximately 46,000 over the entire weekend.

Artistic director Alfred Konijnenbelt looks back on a successful Spoffin 2024. "This was the grand finale that I had in mind for Spoffin," says Konijnenbelt. "It was really very busy. The large squares were full, but the smaller locations were also well attended. We have put together a program with many highlights. One of the undisputed favorites was the performance EXIT by the Belgian company Circumstances. DeRonde/Deroo with their performance It Really Hurts When Your Head Hits The Concrete was also very popular and that shows: the Dutch duo won the VKZ Spoffin OFF Award this year. The beautiful, smaller performance of Art For Rainy Days was very well attended, and Panorama Kino Theatre by Tom Greder was popular."

A total of 27 acts were on the programme for the fourteenth edition of Spoffin.

Baltic States

Every year, Spoffin chooses a focus country. This year, it was actually a region, and the focus was on the Baltic States. Konijnenbelt is pleased with this choice. "The Baltic States were well represented with beautiful performances."

There were also a lot of residencies during Spoffin 2024. "DansBlok, Accompany ME, Kanta Company, Wonderground and Art For Rainy Days all worked on their new performances at Circus Amersfoort or in the Eemhuis. That was the crowning glory of our festival and shows how we work with artists as a festival."

Less visible to the public, but no less important were the meetings of Spoffin PRO, where professionals from the theatre world come together. "One of the topics that was discussed at these meetings is outdoor theatre in education. These conversations have resulted in a great initiative to give outdoor theatre a full-fledged place in education." 

Spoffin says goodbye

The Spoffin team looks back on a successful festival weekend, but the end of the weekend is also bittersweet. This fourteenth edition of the festival is also the last edition. After the municipality of Amersfoort rejected the subsidy application for the period 2025-2028 earlier this year, the objection of the organizing foundation Zomertheater Amersfoort (ZTA) was also dismissed in July. Organizing Spoffin without subsidy is not possible, and so the festival celebrated its last edition this year. To the great sorrow of the organization and the visitors. "The whole weekend I heard from all sides that people think it is a shame that Spoffin has to stop. Artists, audience, professionals, volunteers... Nobody can believe that this is really the last time. We are still going to talk to the Amersfoort politicians and behind the scenes we are working on a restart. But what that will look like is still uncertain. For now, we look back on a beautiful edition, a worthy conclusion to fifteen years of Spoffin."

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Adrian Kaye op Spoffin 2024

Amersfoort bids farewell to Spoffin with record number of visits

 26-08-2024

Going out with a bang: during the last weekend of August, Spoffin festival took place and Amersfoort could not ignore it. For the fourteenth and final time, the festival for street and location theatre treated the city to a special and diverse programme full of artists from home and abroad. The most diverse street theatre acts presented themselves at various locations in and around the Amersfoort city centre, and with that, Spoffin 2024 attracted a record number of visitors: approximately 46,000 over the entire weekend.

Artistic director Alfred Konijnenbelt looks back on a successful Spoffin 2024. "This was the grand finale that I had in mind for Spoffin," says Konijnenbelt. "It was really very busy. The large squares were full, but the smaller locations were also well attended. We have put together a program with many highlights. One of the undisputed favorites was the performance EXIT by the Belgian company Circumstances. DeRonde/Deroo with their performance It Really Hurts When Your Head Hits The Concrete was also very popular and that shows: the Dutch duo won the VKZ Spoffin OFF Award this year. The beautiful, smaller performance of Art For Rainy Days was very well attended, and Panorama Kino Theatre by Tom Greder was popular."

A total of 27 acts were on the programme for the fourteenth edition of Spoffin.

Baltic States

Every year, Spoffin chooses a focus country. This year, it was actually a region, and the focus was on the Baltic States. Konijnenbelt is pleased with this choice. "The Baltic States were well represented with beautiful performances."

There were also a lot of residencies during Spoffin 2024. "DansBlok, Accompany ME, Kanta Company, Wonderground and Art For Rainy Days all worked on their new performances at Circus Amersfoort or in the Eemhuis. That was the crowning glory of our festival and shows how we work with artists as a festival."

Less visible to the public, but no less important were the meetings of Spoffin PRO, where professionals from the theatre world come together. "One of the topics that was discussed at these meetings is outdoor theatre in education. These conversations have resulted in a great initiative to give outdoor theatre a full-fledged place in education." 

Spoffin says goodbye

The Spoffin team looks back on a successful festival weekend, but the end of the weekend is also bittersweet. This fourteenth edition of the festival is also the last edition. After the municipality of Amersfoort rejected the subsidy application for the period 2025-2028 earlier this year, the objection of the organizing foundation Zomertheater Amersfoort (ZTA) was also dismissed in July. Organizing Spoffin without subsidy is not possible, and so the festival celebrated its last edition this year. To the great sorrow of the organization and the visitors. "The whole weekend I heard from all sides that people think it is a shame that Spoffin has to stop. Artists, audience, professionals, volunteers... Nobody can believe that this is really the last time. We are still going to talk to the Amersfoort politicians and behind the scenes we are working on a restart. But what that will look like is still uncertain. For now, we look back on a beautiful edition, a worthy conclusion to fifteen years of Spoffin."

Browse back