Tag: Kattenfeest

Hendrick-Jan de Stuntman

I mentioned Kattenfeest yesterday, but not everything because Hendrick-Jan de Stuntman really deserves a post to himself.

Springtime is a romantic comedy in the tradition of silent films starring Hendrick-Jan de Stuntman and Merel Kamp. The thirty minute show follows the couple from their first meeting until the final “happily ever after”.

On springs.

Both of the characters are suspended from springs and this is what really makes the show into something utterly unique. The springs constrains characters’ movement, forcing them to deliver an exaggerated and often clumsy-looking performance. The fact that they can launch themselves somewhat also expands the slapstick possibilities of the show, something they take full advantage of.

They have taken this show to festivals around Europe and, if you do have the chance to see it I heartily recommend that you do so. It’s a physically impressive and genuinely funny show that is well worth seeing.

Street parties, spaghetti westerns and my new favourite IPA

Kattenfeest is a street party that takes locally every year on the penultimate weekend of August. It’s a day of music, street theatre and kids activities as well as an opportunity for local clubs and groups to generate some interest and raise a bit of revenue that runs well into the evening. We don’t tend to stay overly late (young kids and all that) but it is a pleasant way to pass a sunny afternoon.

We ended up at a bar being manned by the karate club which had put a mat out in order to perform some demonstrations. Here they were serving a selection of local beers, which is how I came to be drinking a Schieve Hop from the Brouwerij De Schieve. I think I have just discovered my new favourite IPA.

Schieve Hop is a very pleasant dark blonde beer with a flavour that is hoppy, but not overpoweringly so. It went down very well, and was much appreciated, on the warm summer afternoon and is a beer I will certainly look out for again. I also loved the fact that the glass was almost as slanted as I was.

And so to my discovery of the day.

I have mentioned the music and this takes the form of a series of bands that play throughout the afternoon and into the evening. One of these bands (Taat Zot & Jasper, I think) was playing a series of 1950s and 1960s covers, including a rather good rendition of the theme from A Fistful of Dollars (or something very similar). This inspired a brief YouTube search and the discovery that this theme has also been performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Enjoy.