Leeuwarden’s royal history will be projected large across the beautiful buildings
Translated by Thomas Ansell
The Keramiekmuseum Princessehof in Leeuwarden, housed in a former royal palace, will host a new video performance that will see Princess Maria Louise van Hessel-Kassel’s life projected large across the buildings. ‘Maria Louise was here’ will be an open-air event, available three times a week until 28 August.
Viewers are invited to take a seat in the palace gardens on a summer’s evening for a huge projection show, with accompanying music by Jos van Kan of the Noord-Nederlands Orkest. “Music forms the basis [of the show], normally it’s the commentary. I have chosen it to be this way round because otherwise it becomes too anecdotal”, says Van Kan.
‘Maria Louise was here’ is to be just the first of many events held by the Keramiekmuseum Princessehof in the coming months. “We know that people really enjoy coming to the museum, but that also some people have trouble coming across us. With these sorts of activities we want to make it easier”, says Director Kris Callens.
Though there are rising Coronavirus figures in some parts of the Netherlands, Callens is not worried about having to change the event format: “it’s a museum activity, and so we’re keeping to the same rules, with reservations required, 1.5-metre distancing, and a limited number of people per square metre. We’ve been able to organise safe museum visits since last year, and so we’ll keep doing it!”
Other Summer events in Leeuwarden and Friesland
Friesland is to experience something of a ‘cultural summer’ says the Omrop Fryslân, with Welcome to the Village Festival (De Groene Ster, Leeuwarden) begins on July 18, and the Opera Spanga’s performances of Carmen will go ahead in the pretty village of Spanga at the end of July and start of August.
The Fries StreetFestival (Leeuwarden) is coming mid-September, and the MadNes festival on Ameland at the end of August.
Autumn, too, will likely have several events including Leeuwarden’s City Proms, the Roze Zaterdag parade, and the WadOpera Peter Grimes on the Waddendijk in mid/late September.
