The Vindicat student association in Groningen is trying to improve its image by organising a music festival
Vindicat will open its doors on 14 May, during the first edition of the Vindicat Music Festival. Bands, artists and DJs will perform in the enormous building that the association uses on the Grote Markt.
The event is open to everyone. “Stadjers” (citizens of Groningen) and students than can use the festival as an opportunity to get acquainted with the association, which is striving for more openness after a series of incidents.
The student association Vindicat wants to improve its image, following several high-profile stories of ‘hazing’ rituals where new recruits have been sent to hospital with head injuries (among other incidents). The student association has also come under fire following some of its members creating a ‘bang list’ of female members, and an article in the members magazine ‘De Ster’ that named a ‘slut of the summer’.
A full history of Vindicats’ misdeeds can be read (in Dutch) on nu.nl, however the actions of the society as a collection were deemed so bad that the University of Groningen and Hanzehogeschool pulled funding from the organisation in 2018.
The festival follows a new Vindicat media drive to show off it’s ‘friendlier face’, which included a new video called “you may have heard of us before, but that was the past”, which debuted for KEI Week 2019.
The progress of the new festival can be followed on Facebook.
“We are organising the very first edition of the Vindicat Music Festival on 14 May! The entire afternoon, evening and night there will be bands, artists and DJs from different genres in several rooms in our building. With this event we want to offer a stage to various bands from Groningen and the surrounding area. And during this event we will open the doors of our society for everyone! ”, said Vindicat via Twitter.
For more information about this event, see the VMF events page on Facebook
