‘Delft is bruisend.’ This often used description roughly means ‘Delft is heaving with activity’ or buzzing. Not a week goes by when there is not some festival or other. No sooner have we emerged from the brilliant Chamber Music Fest that the Jazz Fest was upon us all over town on big and small stages (see the interview with Bram Stoeken).
On the big stages a fair amount of Jazz-Funk could be heard. In front of cafés, or, having heaved their basses onto one of the many barge-cafés, duos and trios played the more traditional jazz. What is remarkable is the age of the musicians – they were not, as one would expect in the UK, old and bearded. The vast majority of them were young men – some even still in their teens. With the exception of a few women singers I spotted only one girl playing the bass guitar. The huge technical university in this town is now doubt the reason for this. There was not one corner in town where one could not hear music. But the public came out in force.
An estimated 40.000 people came to watch, some of them danced while their children hopped about to the rhythms of the drums. On Sunday afternoon the energetic Filet Au Fonque played out the festival in the Markt at 5pm, the reason being that the Sunday service at the Nieuwe Kerk where William of Orange lies buried, did not allow anymore amplified music – God, after all, must not be disturbed, though I’m sure, if he heard the music and saw the fun it produced, he’d be bopping along with the rest of humanity. Astrid Burchardt 28th August 2017
