Dutch's New Island Festival Invades Governors Island in New York

Direct from Holland, the New Island Festival will provide a host of Dutch-made theatrical shows, art installations and music acts that can be enjoyed by people of all ages on New York's Governors Island from September 10-13 and again from September 17-20.

The festival will kick off the fall with provocative theatre, site-specific performances, visual arts, silent DJ sets, performed by Dutch performers. More than 150 Dutch artists will perform during the festival. The festival is part of NY400, which celebrates the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage from Amsterdam to New York harbor, and commemorates 400 years of friendship between the Netherlands and the United States.

New Island Festival is a merging of the Oerol and De Parade festivals from Holland. Some featured events are the U.S. premiere of Ivo van Hove's The Human Voice; a site-specific performance and dinner called Orfeo; an outdoor music/film piece, LAN, from a Fryslan composer; Silent Disco, in which people dance disco using headseats; and four installation art groups, all formerly held residencies at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center in Long Island, performing in the houses on Colonel's Row on Governors Island.

Two member of the interdisciplinary group SLeM, Bruno Doeden and Theo Heldens, also invites members of ATCA to visit the group's Wind Nomads, a landscape-theatre project featuring two-sided paintings perched on metal pipes and installed on Governors Island.

Governors Island is easily accessible via a free and short ferry ride. The cost is only $35 for a passport, which allows visitors to see everything. [Gener]