Last Wednesday night, the Stuka Fest took place. Scattered around Rotterdam and performed in living rooms, thirteen acts of music, theatre, dance, literature, stand-up comedy, interactive installations, and cabaret amused the crowd.
This amiably called ‘stinky sock party’ is a unique concept, for those who have no clue about it yet. People volunteer to host a variety of performances right in their living rooms full of unfamiliar people. There are three rounds, which means that you have to pick three events you wish to see, which inevitably makes you miss some of the worthwhile action. Nevertheless, this event is a huge success and a super-fun one too. EM visited three locations, so read on about what you missed and check the video!
Round one
First, Maxime Philips, a singer and a song-writer hailing from the Rotterdam area and a Pop Academy student, entertained a small crowd and two cats with her mixed style songs. “I play jazz, reggae, funk – basically everything”, Maxime said and exclaimed that the experience was fun yet scary, since it’s such a different venue. Indeed, the atmosphere was very intimate, but after the performance is done, everyone rushed through the door – they had to get to the location of the second round in half an hour.
Round two
The venue in Delfshaven hosted a gypsy-folk pop band called Amarins & Le Gatte Negre. The hosts, Marieke Smit and Jan Willem, were delighted to have a live band in their living room, and since they have enough space to accommodate twenty people, they did not even mind the smell of whiffy socks. “Rotterdam needs more festivals like this because cultural events for students are scarce”, said Jan and the intense performance started. With gypsy-live passion, the five person band heated up the crowd, and some even tried to move their hips to the rhythm, while snacking and drinking beer.
Round three
Yet time came to move on to the final round, and this time it was an interactive installation – Robot Band. Created by Oliver Balsom, Yang Li, Qianwei Tong, Freek Henkes, Tom Uithol and Julia Hollander, the program made people move their body in order to create sounds (some would just call it noise) within the background music. In addition to that, there were three separate mini photo exhibitions by three Art Academy students – Freek Boon, Merel Kemp and Guido Jeurissen. The atmosphere was homely, with a bar made from beer crates and artsy people in every corner of the room, yet it was late and rainy. See you in the next year’s Stuka Fest! MD
Interactive Robot Band
Interactive Robot Band Control
Photo Exhibition by Guido Jeurissen
