Beautiful countryside, good food and the performances make the Oerol Festival the success story it is. The annual 10-day jamboree has been going for 30 years and is one of Europe’s major summer arts festivals. This year it runs from 17 to 27 June.

It takes place on the island of Terschelling in the Wadden Sea in the north of the Netherlands. Around 50,000 visitors are expected again this year. ‘Ten days the sound of an island’ is the theme: from the howling of the wind, to the swish of the sea.

Peking Opera Troupe
‘Oerol’ is Frisian for ‘everywhere’. There are performances from theatre groups, musicians and artists from the Netherlands and abroad. The Peking Opera Troupe from Beijing mix music, dance, mime, song and acrobatics in the famous Chinese theatre discipline. The musicians from Mexico’s Los de Abajo band will be performing songs and the Surinamese artist Tjon Rockon is bringing his theatre piece Free Mason.

Oedipus in Egypt
This year’s opening production is Oedipus in Egypt performed by the New Amsterdam Theatre Group. The company of Dutch and Egyptian actors gives a new perspective to the myth. The story has many parallels with the unrest in the Arab World: a prince who finds himself with his mother and overthrows his father’s regime.

Sword of Damocles
The popular festival is due to have its subsidies are to be cut by 45 percent. Nevertheless, the 33 performances are set to go ahead as planned at a multitude of locations. The uncertain financial future hangs over the festival like the sword of Damocles: it remains to be seen whether there will still be an Oerol Festival in a couple of years’ time.

(mw)