Free Spaces Festival

Free Spaces festival (Vrije Ruimte Festival)

The beginning
Amsterdam Alternative has been launched as a collaborative project of different free spaces in the city. Our main goal was to create a network of solidarity, through which knowledge and experience could be shared and support could be provided. Soon it was decided to jointly make a two-monthly paper accompanied with a website. Both were meant to raise the voice of the Amsterdam underground as well as to place the remaining free spaces out in the open, particularly in time of raging gentrification.

Roughly three years later, we began organizing public debates, reading groups, musical events and related activities. No lack of ideas, but since we do nearly all the work with volunteers and without budget, it is not always possible to realize all the plans right away. Already, we are quite proud of the things we have made happen so far, and we hope to set up yet more great projects. On the to-do-list for many years now has been to organize an AA festival. Preferably open and accessible for everyone, midtown, with lots of bands, dj’s, artists, dancers and speakers.

Gesamtkunstwerk
Whenever a collaborative festival is being fantasized over, two different options come to mind. Option 1 is a festival in an (outside) area, with multiple stages programmed by multiple free spaces. Vondelpark, Rembrandtpark or the Westergasterrein spark the imagination, yet we are open to consider other locations. Option 2 is a festival taking place in various (inside) locations around town.

Major advantages of option 1 would be having everybody together in one place, walking from stage to stage and building the whole thing as a collective. However, finding and getting to use a site -as we do not own one ourselves- will probably be a time consuming and costly effort.  
Option 2 would be easier, since we have venues with the necessary infrastructure and equipment at hand. Yet, this will feel less as a joint festival. Being together in one place means getting out of the comfort zone in order to create something new. Realizing such a Gesamtkunstwerk would be a tough job, though one to look forward to. Here, ‘kunstwerk’ refers to an approach towards the festival, which is not meant to be an enterprise, but rather a project taking shape through the input of many different participants and organizers.

Here, ‘kunstwerk’ refers to an approach towards the festival, which is not meant to be an enterprise, but rather a project taking shape through the input of many different participants and organizers.

Collaboration
In 2019, we started organizing the AADE (Amsterdam Alternative Dance Event). An independent, alternative musical program having place in the OT301 and Cinetol during the ADE (Amsterdam Dance Event). As such, it is not an anti-ADE event, but an affordable, small-scale and experimental equivalent, created for people who look for something different than the sell-out acts perching in Amsterdam every next October. The AADE is fun, but as for now, it does not bear the true festival spirit. Hopefully, more free spaces will join in the program during the years to come, so it could become a proper collective event.  
The Vrije Ruimte Festival, carried out in the Option 2 fashion, is the first serious effort to start a legit festival. This idea took root while planning on organizing several public discussions, related to the webdocumentary we had been working on since medio 2022. Still before devising clear-cut plans for the event, we came in touch with Space of Urgency, a bureau from Berlin. Space of Urgency wanted to move their annual Envisioning Free Space Conference from Berlin to Amsterdam where, together with De Expeditie Vrije Ruimte, it would try to gain more support for free spaces among officials and policy-makers.
However, we did not only want to talk with these people, but also invite the inhabitants of Amsterdam to the free spaces, giving them a sense of what these areas are about and showing them the beautiful things going on there. Consequently, a collective project arised, carrying the name of Envisioning Free Space Conference on the one hand, and the Vrije Ruimte Festival on the other. Practically and promotion-wise that may not have been the most logical choice, but it did not matter. It was more important for us to build up something that was truly ours, in our way, with our DNA. A project we would be able to continue even without the cooperation of the conference from Berlin.

The program
Although the conference program was finished just in time, it turned out to be fairly extensive. Space of Urgency took up the organisation of the Thursday conferences in the Voormalige Stadstimmertuin, part of the Fridaymorning conferences in the OT301, a full program on saturday in De School with international guests and a round-off event on Het Groene Veld on Sunday. Amsterdam Alternative realized part of the discussions on Friday and Saturday, while also having a lion’s share in the evening and night programming.
The daytime programs on Thursday in the Voormalige Stadstimmertuin were geared towards the coming together of policy makers, officials, free space users and artists, meant to lower the barrier for eventual collaboration. The crowd at the discussions in the OT301 was mainly filled with artists, users of cultural breeding grounds, makers and students. On Saturday, in De School, one found a mix of (inter)national guests, officials, makers and people from the nightlife. Three days with rooms full of people talking about topics such as nightlife, free space, urban development, independent culture, breeding grounds, collective ownership and regeneration.
The afternoon and eveningprograms took place in the OCCII, OT301, Rijkshemelvaart, Cinetol, Plein Theater, De Nieuwe Anita and Het Groene Veld and consisted of concerts, electronical music, performances, comedy, exhibitions, food & drinks, tours, open studio’s and documentary screenings. A fine eclectic happening during which the participating free spaces could present themselves.

Future
Certainly, there is room for improvement, but overall we are rather content with the things we put up in November 2022. The collaboration with Space of Urgency went well and will perhaps see a follow-up in the future. The Vrije Ruimte festival as the onset of an event of our own is even more exciting and it felt good having lots of things going on in many inspiring places in the city.

During the next edition, yet more attention should be put into the reaching of people who are unfamiliar with free spaces. It is a pleasure to see the regulars of the ‘scene’ at the festival, but it is as important to enthuse a new audience. Widening the support for free spaces remains one of the main ambitions of AA and the Vrije Ruimte Festival, and we must continue giving it our best. The conference part was voluminous, but left room for tension, creativity and surprise. Sitting yourself down for hours while listening can be interesting and informative, though only when it comes with some more firework. Free spaces are not only to be talked about, they are to be felt. If you have never visited and experienced one, you might never understand. In its interpretation, a free space is not a fixed matter. It is a testbed or laboratory, wherein experimentation and creation take root, not on financial grounds, but by motives of passion and zeal. Not translating that message to the conference would be a missed chance. Chatting about free space in the Voormalige Stadstimmertuin is practical but barely inspiring. The invited official still moves in his or her own habitat, joining in for an hour and returns to the office right after, without any new experience that sticks and impacts policy decisions. 

Free spaces are not only to be talked about, they are to be felt.

It is difficult to see how the Vrije Ruimte Festival will evolve in the coming years. As of now, there is no plan. We hope it develops itself in the same way as Amsterdam Alternative, welcoming more and more talented people who bring in new ideas. We would like the Vrije Ruimte Festival to grow into a memorable experience, one that people look forward to because it is surprising and impressive. A little bit like the former Robodock festival. That remains one of the coolest festivals I have ever been. Robodock was an Option 1 festival. Thus, multiple stages, lots of art and performances in one single place. Not spread all over town, but three or fours days rocking out on the ADM or NDSM. Robodock attracted domestic and foreign visitors, and everyone who has ever been there will never forget. I wish the Vrije Ruimte Festival to be like that, in the way that it leaves a mark, something to tell your friends and children because you wish they had been there. Physically, triggering all their senses. Immersed in the wonderful world of the free space.