Monday, 17 August 2009

on the Boulevard

And then there was a great silence.
What can I say... there were days of traveling, and an unreliable source of internet connection. There ARE photos though and a rather poor memory that goes in and out of focus like an old super 8 camera.

This is was Den Bosch, which really was a very big festival. There was far too much to do and see to hang around the internet spot and write about what happened the day before. Josh, my friend from New Zealand was en route with me as he makes his way slowly to Berlin, so it was double-the-fun.

Hot hot hot was Den Bosch, and though it's toilet suicide to accept beer through the window, the sweat on this woman's brow (try zooming in) will attest to the fact that it was pushing mid 30s in the direct sun. It was the best beer I'd had in a very long time.











It wouldn't be right to mention Boulevard festival without mentioning Frans. Many people I spoke to came back here year after year, either as a helper or as an audience. It's that slight degree of separation between performers and pubic that make festivals like this float my boat. Frans plays a character called Fritz who wrangles people onto the navettes to get to shows and until I stood in line to get to a trapeze show I had little appreciation for what he did. This, his 15th year of performing/wrangling means that he had it down to a fine art. What's more, he was happy to show me and Josh what was what in the festival.

And this apparently is an installation that has been at the festival for a number of years. It couldn't help reminding me of The Muppet show.