Wonderfeel enjoyed its 11th edition from 3 to 5 July, and at a new location this year: at Landgoed Groeneveld in Baarn. At the invitation of the Performing Arts Fund NL, four international programmers (from Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Croatia) attended the festival to discover various forms of Dutch music: classical, contemporary, jazz and global.

For the networking trip to Festival d’Avignon, the Performing Arts Fund NL collaborated closely with Dark Euphoria and the Dutch embassy in France. Five Dutch professionals were invited to attend the Spectacle Vivant, Scènes Numériques (SVSN) conference. The five participants are, each in their own way, involved in digitalisation, AI and other related themes within the performing arts sector.

From the open call, Dark Euphoria selected the following five participants: Marijn de Jong (Urland), Stephanie Pan (Modulus), Raydun Bolk (Festival Noorderzon), Olympia Kotopoulos (ShELFISH) and Thibaud Delpeut (Innovation:Lab). Thibaud Delpeut also participated in a panel discussing the international state of affairs with regard to the performing arts and immersive experiences.

In July we teamed up with the Dutch embassy in Rome to organise a networking trip to Festival Santarcangelo in Italy. From 51 applications, the festival selected seven participants. These participants attended performances and spoke with professionals in the field. International guests such as Elisabetta Consonni (Orlando Festival), Mauro Meneghelli (Gender Bender Festival), Marion Gauvent (A Propic Agency) and Nicolette Kretz (AUA Wirleben) shared their knowledge and experience with the makers. In addition, the artistic director of Santarcangelo, Tomasz Kireńczuk, provided information about the programming and the current situation in Italy regarding funding.

On the photograph, the participants of this trip (from left to right): Ainhoa Hernández Escudero, Merel Severs, Elisa Zuppini, Can Bora, Andreas Hannes, Barnaby Savage, with Davy Pieters seated in the foreground.