If you’d like to know something about me personal, please get in touch with me in person. Below are some words about my profession.
When I was 15 years old, I worked at my first festival, as a voluntary stagehand at the famous Valkhof Affaire in my hometown Nijmegen. This experience made me hungry for Rock ’n Roll.
Not as a musician, but driven from the love and energy that’s in the music itself. Working long days for the greater good of a stunning live show, intimate performance or a great party. This started out in the Valkhof Park in Nijmegen, but soon expended to other festivals around town. Oranjepop, Music Meeting, Dag van het Levenslied, Popronde, Music Meeting. When I passed for my driver’s license, Theun did rent a van, and I could drive The Pax to a gig in Ulft. Especially the way back was very special, snowy weather made it a great first time driving a big splitter van.
As my dad had a Transporter for his work as a plumber and roofer, the next step was that I borrowed his van to drive De Staat to shows throughout The Netherlands. Starting just as the drummers friend, with a did with a van, this soon grew a bit bigger. I got asked to make some phone calls and get some other practicalities sorted out and put everything together. Not much later I was making tourbooks and we had to rent a van because we couldn’t always borrow my dads’. And as how this evolves over time, we needed more space for more gear and more crew.
With things evolving over time, I learned how to take care of instruments while on tour, make sure no one of the touring party gets lost on a big festival and everyone will make it to the next show. Pack a van or trailer as tight as possible, how to set up an attractive merchandise stand, save the band money before even leaving to a show, make carpool schedules, organize RF for wireless instruments and microphones, make sandwiches and toasties from whatever is left over from catering and more.
It isn’t only touring with bands that fills my schedule. I’ve did some runs with Theatergroep FIEN, as a lightning operator, audience aged 6-10. Still tour almost every fall throughout The Netherlands with Popronde as a technical troubleshooter, where upcoming bands play various locations spread over city centers, bars, library’s but also indoor skate parks, clothing stores, record stores and even hardware stores. Next to that I do stage management at various festivals mostly in the Nijmegen area, but most of them limited to The Netherlands. Sometimes it’s also sitecrew or stagehand. Production assistant, advancing and stage management for Doornroosje.
During the pandemic of 2020-2021 all of my jobs in the music and event sector got cancelled by the end of March. Luckily I was able to quickly switch to something completely different, with isolation, steel structures and prefab concrete, as a construction worker. After 9 months I’d realize this was a job that wouldn’t combine well with my passion in the cultural work field. So I decided to quit this per April ’21. And get ready again for a summer full of festivals and gigs. Unfortunately this summer wasn’t what I hoped, but still very glad I’d made the decision to prioritize and put passion above profit.
Podcast: De Machine #30, by Atze de Vrieze en Niels Aalberts About 4 shows on 1 day, moving the band with a Heli. Get to the Chopper! (Dutch)