Festival Kwaku ends in its current form, organization consults with the municipality about an alternative

The Amsterdam Kwaku Summer Festival will end next year in its current form. The organization cites rising costs, tighter permit conditions from the municipality and increased organizational complexity as the reason. "After fifteen intense years, this has not been an easy decision.

Kwaku is more than a festival - it is a unique social phenomenon that has traditionally meant a lot to many people, the organization reports in a press release. Consultation with the municipality It is not yet clear whether the multicultural festival will disappear completely or will return in a different form after this summer's edition. The organization reports that it is in consultation with the South East district about this.

What started as a football tournament in the Bijlmer grew into a festival that attracts more than 120,000 visitors annually, we wrote last year: The Kwaku Summer Festival was founded in 1975 as a small-scale football tournament under the name Kwakoe. The initiative was intended to offer young people in Amsterdam-Southeast who could not go on holiday a nice summer. In the years that followed, it grew into a versatile event with, in addition to football, also room for debates, lectures, dance workshops, beauty pageants and live performances.

This year Broederliefde and Kassav are the crowd pullers. Other local and commercial festivals in the Netherlands are also struggling to keep their heads above water. Just like the Kwaku Summer Festival, they also often mention increasing regulatory pressure and rising costs.