Woodstock aan de Waal

The United States in a Pivotal Moment

The 2026 midterm elections fall in the middle of the festival week. On November 3, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of 100 seats in the Senate will be on the ballot. The results will shape the political landscape for the remainder of the current presidential term and beyond.

At a moment of deep political polarization, the festival asks: can art and music still give voice to American dissent? Can writers, musicians, and artists continue the tradition of self-criticism and rebellion today?

An Eventful History

On July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson proclaimed the independence of the new democratic nation "America" from the old aristocratic and oligarchic Europe. America was born of revolution and rebellion. The New World was rooted in the Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality. From the beginning, America was caught between its high ideals and an unruly reality. How to reconcile these founding promises with the expulsion and extermination of the Indigenous population, slavery and racism, xenophobia towards immigrants, self-enrichment and impoverishment, oppression of Black Americans, women and the LGBTI+ community?

Resistance in Art – Art in Resistance

Since the creation of the United States, American writers, artists, musicians, photographers and filmmakers have held up a mirror to their country and culture. In doing so, they built an artistic tradition of relentless self-criticism. From Uncle Tom's Cabin to the speeches of Martin Luther King and Amanda Gorman's poem The Hill We Climb, from the novels of John Steinbeck to those of Jonathan Franzen, from Gershwin's Porgy & Bess and Bernstein's West Side Story to the musical Hamilton, from Jackson Pollock to Jasper Johns, from Dorothea Lange to Diane Arbus, from Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee to Easy Rider and Twelve Years a Slave, and from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen – the culture in the United States, in literature, music, photography, and film, became a counterculture par excellence, an expression of America's dissenting tradition, a culture of Art in Resistance.

Woodstock Music & Art Fair

The Woodstock festival became iconic in this respect. From 15 to 19 August 1969, more than 400,000 music lovers gathered on the 240-hectare site owned by dairy farmer Max Yasgur near Woodstock, New York. The town of Woodstock was then considered one of the most important centers of hippie culture. The festival was subtitled "3 days of Peace and Music" and grew into a symbol of hippie culture and of the protest against the Vietnam War and broader social upheaval. Big names who performed here included Joan Baez, Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Santana.

Protest culture in Nijmegen

At the beginning of the 20th century, Nijmegen was still known - somewhat mockingly - as "Monnikendam aan de Waal" because of the large number of monasteries. Over time, the monasteries disappeared, and with the arrival of the (Catholic) University and its students, seeds were also sown for the Nijmegen protest culture. In 1968, the first Dutch student occupation was organized in Nijmegen, and the Pierson riots of the 80s are also an iconic part of Nijmegen's protest history. Since then, Nijmegen has been considered a "left-wing" city, and it is not for nothing that it is also affectionately called (with a wink) "Havana aan de Waal."

And protest is still alive in Nijmegen: in 2025, no fewer than 152 (registered) protests were held, 60 more than the year before! Nijmegen is therefore a fitting location for a conference and festival about American protest culture.

Woodstock aan de Waal

The name Woodstock aan de Waal captures the spirit of the week. On the one hand, it is a reference to Woodstock as a defining moment of American protest culture; on the other hand, it is a nod to the protest tradition in Nijmegen and the nickname "Havana aan de Waal".

Our ambition is to bring together a wide range of cultural expressions during the first week of November that align with the theme of resistance in art in the United States. All participating venues and organizations program their own contribution and bear the financial responsibility for them. Woodstock aan de Waal is made possible by the enthusiastic efforts of many, without any subsidy or sponsorship.