Uitmarkt 2008

This year I went to the 'Uitmarkt' for the first time in my life. The 'Uitmarkt' is a three-days festival where cultural institutions from Amsterdam and surroundings present themselves. During this festival I mainly focused on the musical concerts in the Bimhuis and the 'Conservatorium van Amsterdam' (CvA). Especially the concerts in the new CvA building were great. The first -and probably best- concert I saw was in the Blue Note Room of the CvA. Here, the Vlado Spisiak Band played a really groovy set of music. I liked the good harmony and rhythm and it was obvious the musicians were enjoying themselves. Other interesting concerts were Nueva Manteca's and Bo de Graaf's 'I compani sms in concert.' The concept of the concert of the last named group was intriguing: before the concert started the audience was asked to send text messages (sentences / phrases / words) to a central computer. The text messages were displayed on a large screen one at a time and were the point of departure of a variety of musical improvisations. Although the idea was great, the musical results were a bit skimpy. In short, the Uitmarkt was an interesting and high-quality 'cultural preview' of the upcoming season. Maybe a bit too crowded (tja: 'kicks voor niks...').