Day 4: Nijmegen
Welcome
Yesterday we played at Valkhof festival in Nijmegen.
Although there was a traffic light system in the elevator of Holiday Inn Express Rotterdam Central Station, an IHG Hotel, instead of allowing me to safely avoid the breakfast rush hour it lured me in with false set of buttons which looked just like the ones you use to review airport bathrooms. There was in fact a strictly enforced breakfast regimen for this hotel and when we had checked in the previous night we were asked to choose which time slot we wanted to attend (two of the four were already full) and given a plastic tag to present upon entry.
When I turned up at 10.30 the restaurant was fairly quiet so I enjoyed taking my time to serve up an immaculate plate of sliced cucumber and tomato, hard boiled eggs, a pain au chocolat, a bread roll, a slice of cheese, and a smear of cream cheese. On the side I had a bowl of muesli with skim milk and apricot yoghurt.
Berend turned up at midday in the MAN, and we piled in for the short drive back to last night’s venue, Rotown. It was around this point that we were coming to terms with the fact that the carnet might be missing. The last time we had seen this important importation document was in Gainesville, Florida, when it was placed in one of the pelican cases, carefully labelled with orange tape. It should have been stamped at customs and then returned to this location by the shipping company, but a thorough rifling through of our cases had so far returned nothing but audio equipment. As we loaded up the van we checked everything one more time, and then the search begun, examining every link in the delivery chain to find the most likely cause of this mishap.
While keyboards clattered and phones ran hot, Berend drove us out of Rotterdam, and we headed east towards Nijmegen. The drive along the A15 was flat and smooth, and after 90 minutes we sighted the very impressive arch of Waalbrug, which carries vehicle traffic across the Waal River and into the city. It turned out that our festival was located only a stone’s throw from this magnificent steel span and after parking our van we wandered down to where all the food stalls were located, underneath the bridge’s southern spans. Nearby we found a small pedestrian bridge that bears a strong resemblance to its larger neighbour but felt much more bouncy when we walked it.
Constructed in 2014 the Wandelbrug Ooypoort’s 56m span makes it the world’s largest free span built from composites, a fact which means that it can be lifted by crane and removed should a large houseboat need to pass this part section of the river.
The festival stages were located in Valkhof Park, right up the top of a hill that provides beautiful views out across the river to the north. There were plenty of tall trees for shade, and there was an ancient Roman ruin to house the beer garden. We had arrived early so there was plenty of time to assemble our equipment behind the stage and when it was time for changeover, we were given the luxury of 45 minutes of setup time.
The line-up for this event was very diverse. The acts before us were a kids electronic/hip hop act, and then a jazz trio so we weren’t sure what sort of crowd we would be playing to. While we were setting up it began to rain so we moved everything upstage and undercover. I watched as a team of stagehands and piano movers did an incredible job of rolling a grand piano off the stage, down a slippery wooden ramp, and into a waiting trailer.
Luckily the rain eased and when we walked out to play the sun had returned and the crowd were very happy about it. We kicked off at 6.15pm which meant that for a change I wouldn’t be playing during the hours of my peak jet lag. Unfortunately, during the afternoon I was hit with an intense bout of hay fever, so I ended up sneezing and blowing my nose through the set which severely diminished my experience. Tristan, Liz, and Jon played beautifully, though, and Gabe did a fine job of mixing us from out the front, keeping us safely underneath the strictly enforced local decibel limit. We saw a number of Beths shirts dotted amongst the crowd and even quite a few folks singing along, which was a nice surprise.
With an early night feeling tantalisingly close we packed everything down, relying on the strength of the wolf to carry our cases down the stairs from the stage and pack them into the van. Berend drove us out of the festival and it was only a short drive later that we were checked in and I was enjoying the comfort of a moderately saggy bed.
I’ll leave you with this delightful submission from Mike Taylor. Very nice attention to detail and I love the different coloured markers.