Welcome to SofaFolk. What can you expect the 3rd of April?
Meet up
Our fist goal is to make sure you meet each other again. You probably haven’t seen many of your balfolk friends for over a year. Many people feel thing longing and we want to try and bridge the gap. All this around our shared passion: BalFolk, world music from around here, live and with dancing. We also hope reach you, friends from across the borders and invite you to SofaFolk. That’s why we have thought of an online platform where you can log-in, walk around and find the people you want, whether you knew them already or not. And we, as musicians, together with our team of dancer, technicians and volunteers are definately looking forward to see you again.
Online and offline
We offer a program with combines online activities with stuff you can do at home, comfortably on your sofa. You can choose what you want to participate in. You wanna come just for the music? Great, that’s possible. Are you curious what other options we have? Read on.
Music and dance
Of course there’s music. Yes, it will be live, but yes, through a streaming service. BmB and Airboxes both present their first CD, freshly recorded in the past year. A good reason to perform together. Of course you can sponsor one or both bands by ordering their brand new album. Next to that we have Sophie van Grinsven dancing for you. You might know as workshop leader in the Netherlands. Music and dance, that’s were balfolk starts. And that BmB and Airboxes together become AirBmB, makes it all the more fun.
Festival on your sofa
We have a few surprises for you at home, on the sofa. First of all: designer Maartje de Goede, known for a work for CaDansa festival, made our poster and a unique festival bracelet. We’ll send it to you if you choose one of our festival packages.
During previous livestreams you could see artists working, but this time we’ll invite you to get creative yourselves. Auke Eringa made a fun coloring page all for your creative pleasure. And we’ve got a little something to make you feel connected to a festival audience…
Extra online activities
In our virtual festival ground you can bump into each other. We want to give you the opportunity for chance meetings (or not being found). There will be corners for private conversations if you haven’t seen eachother for a while. You can visit the virtual bar, enjoying one of your specialty beers on your sofa. We’re going to do some fun games. We’ll make a space where musicians can exchange tunes, which is indeed possible, instead of jamming. And there will be organized tune learning sessions.
Bier met je maten
In Dutch we have the expression “bier met je maten”, “beer with your buddies”. For us, the enjoyment of company ánd a nice beer both belong at a folk festival. Folkie Manon de Graaf comes to our rescue, and we to hers. She offers three specialty beers from her establishment Taplokaal Gist in Utrecht. The beer will come straight from casks into cans. Of course you can order something to nibble with that. For non-beer-drinkers there’s a no alcohol option. So you can support a Dutch enterprise and save this delicious beer, which has been lying still for so many months now.
A story before you go to bed (only in Dutch)
Sitting around the campfire, or at a wooden bench in a tent, all we need is a good story for a good atmosphere. Storyteller Rob van Uden brings you stories for during dinner and of course a bedtime story at the end.