Last weekend I enjoyed the 2017 edition of Landjuweel (Dutch for "Land of the Jewel") festival at Ruigoord, a 5 days event and one of the highlights of the year.
Ruigoord is a hippie village close to Amsterdam. This village was established in the 70s and provided the free thinkers, anarchist and hippies a geo space to create their community. In last 50 years a lot has changed. While it was allowed to live in the village a long time ago, now this is not allowed anymore. While the area was remote 50 years ago, it is now surrounded by the Amsterdam harbour: oil tanks, container terminals, and many buildings.
The good thing though: although the companies in the harbour constantly trying to get Ruigoord demolished, the local government and law system is still able to prevent it from happening. Wonderful for me and my friends, since the tradition of the annual Landjuweel festivals can still continue, as well as Ruigoord can still be the place for many artists to have their workshops without too many government rules they have to follow (the village has much less laws they need to obey).
Many events are organised by the local community; All of them having the element of 'Art' as the prime component: from poetry/book readings and shows, to performing art, to music from all over the world.
Ruigoord is a special place: for me, for my friends, and for so many other people who either go to Ruigoord once in a while, or more frequent, or have their workshops in the village.
It is one of the few magical places in my little country, the Netherlands.
With photographs I like to give you an impression of my experience last weekend, well last 6 days actually. I hope you like it.
One of the food corners at Landjuweel; the Oil tanks were build maybe 7 or 8 years ago, before it was unused farmland.
A glimpse of the church in the centre of the village; This church is used for expressions of art, from display, to performing art, to dance floor.
The front of the church at night.
And one of the sides of the church.
The square in front of the church.
Landjuweel was always opened with a music ceremony with many people playing the drums and a huge bonfire. However, the new rules for 2017 forbid open fire, so the bonfire was replaced by a balloon.
One of the buildings in the village mainly used for art events like poetry reading, musical performances with classical and world instruments and more. During Landjuweel it functions as a little bar, mainly.
Visual art in the tree in between the building above and the church.
A typical Landjuweel sign at the entrance of the village.
The main stage with mostly bands playing during the whole festival.
The main stage at night with beautiful video art.
The DAF stage; The stage is old DAF brand bus. This is the acid techno and psy-trance floor.
Some other areas at the festival area at night time.
Now some impressions at daytime!
The main road through the village.
The road from the village to the main area.
The main area with stages, hangout spots, food carts and a bunch of great people.
Many different crazy performing art for the people to experience.
A fortune teller bringing a message from the cosmos and requested to write a message back to the cosmos after which the request was made to randomly select an name and address in a traditional phone book and post the card in the postbox next to the fortuneteller... Hilarious! :)
Real life marionettes.
Museum Revisé showing the Q.A.B. and its history. A solar based energy system - being the prime source of our future lives on earth - build into trees that are so real, nobody is able to see the difference between the real trees we have now, and those build for the Q.A.B. A show of at least half an hour and so funny and beautifully done that I forgot to make any pictures. Except this one at the entrance with the do's and don'ts (in Dutch unfortunately).
Doctor Bibber.
Karaoke and other performing art corner.
I realise I didn't make too many pictures of all the different displays of art, areas and surroundings, but I still hope I could give you a nice impression of the village of Ruigoord and the festival. Ruigoord is truly a very special place that I like to visit, for festivals of any kind or just to hang out in the grass on weekend day.
Beautiful, just beautiful. When will there be festival again there, i'm from Denmark and could attend maybe in the near future. upvoted and resteemed :)!
Their website is in Dutch only but you may use a website translator service. The agenda is here (column to the left and also menu bar on top): http://ruigoord.nl/#easy-tab-tab-Agenda
This particular festival will likely be first week of August 2018. Most other real festivals for 2017 are already behind us. But they have many small events. But, when it is the first time for you to come to Ruigoord, I advise Landjuweel festival.
grote feest man!
je weet precies waar je gaan moet eh?
mag ik mee volgoende keer?
looks like so much fun! specially the night pics say so !
Absolute a super feest. Groot niet echt, maar ik hou dan ook van de kleinere feestjes. Landjuweel is echt speciaal, echt veel super geinige art expressies. Ik lag helemaal dubbel die waarzegger, kosmos en kaartje dat nu ergens bij een wildvreemde in de brievenbus ligt met een voor hun vaag bericht erop "Wees Lief voor Ons x Ed" (die op de foto in de post was van een vriendin van me). Muzikaal vind ik Landjuweel altijd wat minder, maar dat mag de pret niet drukken. Daarvoor ga ik naar andere festivals zoals Wildeburg, Fusion of clubs als De School, Shelter :) Je bent van harte welkom de volgende keer. Zal eerste week van augustus zijn in 2018. Van woensdag tm zondag. Misschien dat ik nog naar Psy-Fi festival ga in Friesland, maar nog niet besloten. Hou niet van de muziek die daar gedraaid wordt; Echter nog nooit geweest, dus moet er toch een keertje heen :) Ook Mysteryland is niet helemaal mijn ding qua muziek, maar is qua festival zo leuk wanneer je je buiten de massa op de artie dingetjes focust. Pfff, nog veel te doen deze augustus :)
wow, thanks for all the information :-)! Will do and thanks again.
NJOY :)
Happy place))
Super Happy Place! :))
Awesome
Must be vary happening place
It surely is! :)
Wow!!! I wish I could go to these kind of festivals again. What joy!!! Happy for you!
Thank you! Just plan this for next year? Also next year Fusion in Germany :)
@edje is this a festival that happens once per year at a specific time, or is this sort of an ongoing thing all year or for part of the year?
Landjuweel is a festival once a year, but they local community organises other festivals throughout the year as well. Also other promoters organises events and festivals, they rent the place then for eg a day or a weekend. Smaller events are held in the church, also in winter time. The link to their website (in Dutch only, but you may use a website translation service): http://ruigoord.nl/
Very nice. I miss living in Utrecht and the Netherlands in general. There was always a diversity of cultural activities and civic engagement. This festival reminds me of what the Free State Project does annually with the Porcfest in New Hampshire.
You have a link to the project and what they do?
Yes, here is the link to the official webpage:
https://freestateproject.org/
And here is the official "Porcfest" festival which is done yearly in June:
http://porcfest.com/
Just checked the website and the photos. Looks nice! Great location, people dressing up as well, good combination of activities. I think they should ditch the gun workshop though. Also they could do a bit more hippie style decorations and tent :) But love what they try to do!
Recently I was to another festival in NL that started last year. Less hippie visitors, young party people but with open mind; truly amazing decorations and music programming (here) note: please don't vote for this post if you were planning to, it is out of voting time :)
upvoted your vote is also very important for me
Thank you.
Ruigoord Is on my list since I heard about it. I have really have to see this one day.
Go for it! :)
Upvoted! This place looks awesome. Thanks for sharing.
Landjuweel is one of the most enjoyable art events in the Netherlands, and the place is super indeed!
Nice Outfit! :)
thank you!! I feel it accurately captures my personality.
Nice! :)
I've never been there and living in Spain now I probably never will.
It's a shame, looks like a really nice place and a voice against modern-day society.
Good post, thanks.
Landjuweel is visited by foreign people! So, when you can make it to Amsterdam next year? :) Closer to your home, is BOOM festival, in Portugal. I never been their, but apparently a really nice week of entertainment and enjoyment. Many of the people I know from Ruigoord and Landjuweel go there. It is not a village like Ruigoord, but a week event somewhere in nature. But it attracts many hippies and free thinkers.
Next year we're thinking about going to the Seville Feria, but I'll check this BOOM festival.
Thanks
Success and have fun! :)
Cool post
Thanks :)
wow! I have never known about this place, but maybe because I haven't had enough inburgering ..hehe, I should go here, let's put it on my agenda. Thank you for this knowledge!
Hope you have fun at Ruigoord! :) I guess it is not in the exam :)
Wow, what a place, magical. I am glad it is still standing, despite the encroachment of industrialisation. Loved the photos, really showed the dynamics of the environment.
It is for sure a special place and I hope it'll stay there for a long time to come.
good work...
i have upvoted you and following you now..
follow back and upvote on my interseting posts which i have posted recently...
:)
Thank you
Truly fantastic it's great to see things like this still flourishing, Great post.
Thank you, I agree!
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Resteemed! And following! ^_^
Super, thanks :)
great pics! it looks really fun and memorable, and most of all relaxed. difficult to fins that in US anymore, too many regulations.
I'm sure in parts of the US of more liberty like San Fransisco or New York, you must have areas and projects that can operate with a little less rules.
not really. the rules are there, people just break them in areas where things are more liberal.