Dutch Lesbian Festival Nijmegen

By Anna McFaith on Saturday, December 19, 2009 - 23:40

Fellow Dutch lesBians, are you ready for three days of dancing, workshops and sports? Are you ready for the party of your life?

The fourth annual Lesbian Festival will be held on 15, 16 and 17 January in Nijmegen and you can be there for only a tiny fee!

The Lesbian Festival is an initiative by the Dutch COC, an organization for LGBT men and women, and was first held in Amsterdam for two years. After that, Nijmegen took over and is now bringing you the fourth edition of the festival.

Vera Bergkamp, vice chairman of the COC, thinks it is important that the Lesbian Festival becomes an annual event.

Gay festivals are organized throughout the year. Gay Pride, Roze Zaterdag [‘Pink Saturday’], but lesbian and bisexual women don’t get much out of those. The few events aimed at lesbian and bisexual women are always overshadowed by those for gay men.

Vera Bergkamp, image courtesy of Ibrahim Farah

With the Lesbian Festival, there is no chance of gay men overshadowing us at all. Three days of fun for any lesbian await you. There is an entire evening and night reserved for dancing. Friday night, the 15^th of January, you are cordially invited to club ‘Doornroosje’ to party away the night and kick off the Lesbian festival.

Saturday is reserved for workshops. One of its highlights? A story telling contest as the storytelling contest in the previous edition (2007) became an instant hit. You can also listen to music, debate about related topics and catch a movie or play. Also on Saturday: the reveal of the lesbICOONingin of 2010. This contest looks at the out women who’ve made an impact last year and awards one of them for their efforts. Who? Well, you can vote for that! The contest closes on 31 December so vote fast!

Sunday is all about the body. There will be some hiking, some good food and some partying and while the festival may be over, you can always take some new acquaintances out for a night on the town the weekend after.

So, Dutch readers (and any international dykes who want to join us), are you ready to party?! Get your tickets here or look over the program first if you’re not sure yet. The Lesbian Festival is bound to become the lesBian hit of 2010, so don’t miss it and let us know if you’re going in the comments!