Den Haag: The Embassy Festival

Festivals Travel

Yesterday I went to the Embassy Festival in Den Haag. It was very good, but not at all what I was expecting. For one thing there were several stages, so a lot was going on at once. Nobody can be in two places at the same time, so while I was in one place I kept wondering if I was missing something better elsewhere. There was also an international market with stalls bearing produce and merchandise from all over the world, so there was plenty to see and do and eat.

It was not possible to see and hear everything, and I know I missed a lot, but the multicultural, Amsterdam-based Arifa grabbed my attention because their music is so unusual. I also enjoyed the music of the Swedish singer David Rönnegård. He has a very powerful voice and the emotion was all too evident when he told crowd racism is a big problem in Sweden and used a few well-chosen swearwords to describe his feelings towards the present government. For sheer energy though, the Belgium group La Chiva Gantiva were pretty much unbeatable and it was contagious because just about everyone in earshot was jumping up and down in time to the music.

I had my camera with me, took plenty of pictures, and was blissfully unaware of the fact that it no longer works. That’s just life I suppose. I had a look on YouTube, but there is not much footage available, so in the absence of pictures this is the best I could do . . .

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