Camping terrains

A piece of land for one’s own:
a look at collectively owned campsites in the Netherlands 

Arriving at Appelscha 
Our bus approaches Appelscha, and I notice someone else on the bus. They have long hair, a huge backpack, and hiker’s pants. This person is going where we are going, so I approach them as we get off the bus. 
Our first conversation with A. is confusing: they seem surprised by our questions (what brings you here? how do you know about the Anarchist Campsite?), and they answer them cryptically. After a twenty minute walk from the bus stop to the Anarchist Campsite, we understand why A. has been looking oddly at us. 
The painted caravan greeting incomers is inhabited by two jolly people. In a rush of words, smiles and excitement they welcome us to the yearly congress of the Vrije Bond (Anarchist Movement of Belgium and the Netherlands). We are offered a welcome pack, which includes a beautiful paper bag printed with the Vrije Bond logo, a custom zine with texts written for the congress and a detailed week-end programme, as well as stickers and candy. For a little over 20 euros, the anarchists propose to feed us, sleep us and entertain us till Monday. 
While A. receives the warm welcome, and promptly hands them their cash, C. and I are overwhelmed. We awkwardly explain our position, saying we do not mean to intrude, and that coincidentally, we also do not have enough money to pay the full week-end fee for board and lodging. Our adventure begins with the anarchists warm response. 
For something short of 20 euros, we are welcomed as tourists into both the campsite, and the congress. Despite of our meagre donation, and on account of our early departure on Saturday morning, we are offered to join the communal meals prepared by Le Sabot.⁽¹⁾ 
In less than half an hour, we find our selves settled in Appelscha.
That night, after a long walk in the pine woods of the Drents-Friese Wold National Park, we begin to learn more about this collectively owned campsite and the history of the Anarchist movement in the Netherlands. 

The Pinksterlanddagen - A tradition ‘against war and fascism’⁽²⁾ 
The Anarchistisch Kampeerterrein has a long and beautiful history. It was established in 1933 by a collective of young anarchists who sought a place from which to organise the Pinksterlanddagen (PL). This recurring festivity takes place every May in Appelscha, seeing thousands come together to celebrate the movement, and discuss its future. 
The PL has been running steadily since 1933, with the only exception of the WWII years, marking this year its very special 90th anniversary. During the three Pinksterlanddagen, activists and supporters from all over the country and beyond join with their tents, camping around the Anarchistisch Kampeerterrein for several days to attend political meetings, cultural manifestations, and activities. The organisation of the PL has developed over the years into an intergenerational and intersectional effort, with the initial anarchist youth being joined first by the Federation of Free Socialists (FVS), and then by several anti-militarist, feminist, and squatters groups.⁽³⁾ 

The Anarchistisch Kampeerterrein 
Initially chosen as a location for the early 1920s meetings due its role as a strong-hold of anarchist and socialist workers, Appelscha became the home of a permanent Anarchist Campsite in 1933. The purchase of the old potato field was a complex affair, involving several contributors fronting the expenses for a whole movement, at the time made up of mainly working class youth. The organisational structure chosen for the campsite developed as a stichting named ‘Stichting tot Vrijheidsbezinning’, to which the collective ownership of the land was entrusted. Within this foundation, however, the ‘contributors’ whose financial aid had made the purchase of the land and the building of facilities possible, formed a separate organ. For many years, this organ held the highest position within the association, influencing decision-making and organisation. The foundation's main goal had been set out to be “providing opportunities to camp and hold meetings to the benefit of the socialist movement and all freedom lovers in the broadest sense”.⁽⁴⁾ In 2018, a conflict erupted between the contributor’s organ and the campsite dwellers. After years of struggle over the power acquired by the contributor’s organ, and the latter’s growing hostility to the horizontal, self-organisation of the campsite, a group of dwellers enacted a rent strike. You may read more about this controversy on the Anarchistisch Kampeerterrein’s website, however, the main result for this collectively owned camp was a change in organisation from the form of a stichting to a veregening, an association to which the campsite is now entrusted. The veregening bought the campsite from the stichting, and is now working to ensure that this collectively owned piece of land can continue to be passed on to future generations of anarchists and activists in a form that prevents the arising of power struggles. Today, about thirty campers rent or own a permanent caravan on the camp, and many more join in their tent. 

Camping Today 
In spite of its turbulent history and the presence of eighty young activists, the campsite appeared to us as an idyllic plot of land. The main building houses a kitchen where campers can cook and wash their dishes, and a library filled to the brim with texts about anarchist movements, games and books on nature. On its side, a big space with a theatre like stage is home to karaoke nights, and a permanent photographic display detailing the movement’s history. On the second floor, visitors will find the Anarchist Archives Appelscha (AAA), cared for by the legendary Jan: a must-see for history nerds. A few steps away from the main house, is a second building housing a little rental home accessible to wheelchairs and less sporty types. All facilities are cared for collectively by dwellers and visitors alike. 
Besides these few amenities, and many bathrooms and showers, the campsite is a narrow strip of land bordered by trees on the left, and a healthcare facility on the right. 
The grass is scattered with small washing stations where campers greet each other while washing their teeth in the morning and dinner plates in the evening. 
Feeling like lost tourists on this collectively organised island, C. and I joined the movement during meals, and did our best to make ourselves useful. In the loving atmosphere constructed by the congress’ organisers, we found ourselves being generously educated by our newly made friends, who packed our pockets with stickers, and gave us thousands of addresses for the country’s best community kitchens. 
Despite these many impressions, the feeling of visiting Appelscha is not one I can adequately relay. A visit is due, if you are to really experience the extent of the Anarchist Campsite’s hospitality. This wonderful community, which on a normal week-end will likely consist of a few campsite dwellers eager to chat, continues to grow. They are learning together what owning land collectively actually means, and it could mean in the future. If these questions are close to you, my advice is: go camp! 

The Nederlandse Toeristen Kampeer Club (NTKC)
Unlike the Anarchist Campsite, the NTKC as an organisation is not strictly affiliated with a political movement. Anyone can join the NTKC via an online application, and although the payment of a yearly fee does make it slightly elitist, it is an easy way towards obtaining a membership card. The registration process tends to run, in my experience, on the long side, but the structure by which one gains entrance to the 19+ grounds for (semi)wild camping owned by the NTKC in the Netherlands remains an impressive feat. 
After registering and paying your fee, you will receive a membership card in your post. Using the ledensnummer printed on your card and an email address, you can gain access to the member’s information package where instructions for each location’s locks and rules await. In this way, terrains are made accessible to anyone at anytime. Besides the vast networks of camping spaces, the association also offers a page to connect with its ‘friends’, other campers based in the Netherlands who are willing to host people in their yard for a night or two as the move across the country by motor or foot.
This community-based camping group, whose lands are either leased, private, or collectively owned, began in 1912 and celebrates this month its 111 year anniversary. Its founder was a 20-year-old called Carl Denig, whose business - today quite renown in the Netherlands - started off in 1924 from his experience producing NTKC equipment. Modelling the NTKC on an English Camping Association that he had come in contact with during his travels, Denig began to hold meetings with siblings and friends, establishing what is today the oldest camping club in the Netherlands. 
Despite 111 years of history, the NTKC’s core values continue to resonate with the needs and wishes of many nature lovers in the Netherlands. Seeking “peace and space” as well as a way of camping with simple means, in the respect of nature, and of each other, many people have joined this non-profit club. The NTKC terrains, some small and others very big, stretch from Groningen to Zeeland, and all across the country, on the island of Texel, and along the German border in Winterswijk. Facilities are minimal: besides one’s own equipment, visitors can expect to find showers, toilets and little more. In some terrains, fire-making is completely prohibited, whereas on others, fire pits are available to hold bonfires and try out some of the club’s campfire songs.⁽⁵⁾
Today, the NTKC community continues to foster collective ways of being together. Many traditions, such as that of huisvlags (handmade flags used to signal one’s tent to acquaintances in the camps), have shaped the character of this club into a playful network of simple dwellings safeguarding the right to rest close to nature and each other. 
This aim, which gains more significance and political weight with each passing year, stands against the encroachment upon free land which the past centuries have seen taking hold in Western Europe, and the world at large. Through communal care, self- organisation, and a different approach to landownership, collectively owned campsites in the Netherlands continue to represent oasis in which the occasional tourist such as myself may come to learn the many ways of ‘living otherwise’ available on this planet. 
When the hopeless atmosphere sold to us by the Dutch housing crisis and its markets gets the best of you, pack a tent and visit them. You’ll come home all the wiser.

(1) Le Sabot is a wonderful activist kitchen run by a collective of inspiring and hard working folks. Need someone to cook for your action? You can find them at this link 

(2) The slogan of the early PL was found in this resourceful brochure by the movement, a reading I recommend to anyone comfortable with the Dutch language.

(3) To join next year’s PL, or learn more about its current shape, check it out

(4) Translation by author. Find the original on page 19, of the ‘Pinksterlanddagen’ brochure.

(5) You can follow this link to the NTKC page on campfire songs