This august the two of us decided to participate in the Erasmus+ program and do an internship in Tilburg, a beautiful city in the south of the Netherlands. We were working at two different festivals during our stay from the 10^th to 28^th of august. One of them was the Kaapstad festival, which was a free pop-up art festival from the 18^th to 20^th of august. The art of the festival took over Tilburg city with interactive installations, compelling performances and much more. The second festival we were a part of was the Purple festival on the 24^th of august. It was a huge come-together for the new students that will start their education at the Fontys university in Tilburg. At the Purple festival the entire Fontys community came together in a huge park to enjoy the artists and activities that were spread over the different stages all day long.
But let’s get back to the beginning. We started our journey on thursday the 10^th of august and flew from the Vienna airport to the Eindhoven airport where our supervisor picked us up and drove us to our AirBnB. We were very lucky because our accommodation was in the center of Tilburg which was practical for getting everywhere. We even had a cat that was staying with us which was very sweet.

Working at the festivals
On our first few working days for the Kaapstad festival our mission was to build up one of the artworks which was a huge steel structure made of 350 straw bales. The work on these days was exhausting because it was mainly physical work like carrying all the straw bales, but we had some nice colleagues that made everything easier. On the weekend the actual festival started, and many people came to take part in it. Our tasks on those days were to set everything up in the morning and break it down again in the evening. During the day we walked around the city to make sure everything was fine with each of the stations. We also supported several artists and their artworks, which gave us the opportunity to meet many new people and to experience the festival ourselves.
Purple Festival
From the 22^nd to the 25^th of august, we worked at the Purple Festival, which took place in a huge park called Leijpark. Since the park is on the other side of the city, we had to go there by bike, which was fun experience. On the three days before the festival, we mostly had to do easy tasks like decorating the area because the crew already built everything up. On those days we were even allowed to go home a few hours earlier because there wasn’t much left to do. The actual festival took place on Thursday and our job was to escort the various artists to their stages and make sure they have everything they need. Many of the artists were very friendly and we had a really good time with them. What we loved about that job is that we met so many nice people and could experience the festival ourselves and make a lot of fancy memories. We were even allowed to go on the big mainstage to get a view and take some pictures. That day was our longest working day because we we worked until 11 p.m. Then it started to rain terribly, and we got soaking wet while riding our bikes home. But hey, that’s how you make memories 😉 On Friday, our last day of work, we only had to take down some posters and all the decoration we put up before. When everything was done, we could leave and at home we planned our trip to Amsterdam for the next day.

All in all, our stay in the Netherlands was a big adventure for us where we made many lovely memories. Doei Nederland!