Photo-reportage: Manus van Alles, a multicultural festival in Maastricht

For Maastrichters from other districts, Wittevrouwenveld is known for its ethnical diversity, its working class population and its yearly Manus van Alles festival. More than 20 nationalities live here and have been celebrating the festival together, already for the eighth time this year.

“Manus van Alles is the first real big multicultural festival in Maastricht,” says Roger Heuts, the main organiser. “We want to encourage interaction between the people in this neighbourhood but also with people from the whole of Maastricht and surroundings. We want other people to come here, see that it’s a great area and enjoy our multicultural environment.”

“Of course the festival is mostly for the people from the neighbourhood, so that they can have a reason to be proud of their district. But we also want to show others that not only the centre, but also the workers’ part of town is a nice area. This is a multicultural place - these people work together, live together and all of that in a good atmosphere.”

Manus van Alles started eight years ago as an initiative of shop owners from Wittevrouwenveld. “I started this festival with my father,” Roger says. “It was a very nice thing to do.”

“Ten years ago I went to Georgia and I made some good friends with the dancegroup Gurjaani over there. I also played football in a team with Moroccan and Turkish boys and I was the coach. So I guess I was always busy with multicultural environments. My partner comes from Sheffield so I think that’s also multicultural, isn’t it? (He laughs). I’ve been living and working here, in Wittevrouwenveld, for already 30 years. I know all the people here, I almost feel like I grew up here with them.”

 Roger, Turk and Spacekees

Since its first edition, Manus van Alles has become increasingly popular every year. This year the festival took place on Sunday 22 June and attracted between 10.000 and 15.000 visitors. From 8 am in the morning until 7 pm in the evening everyone is invited to watch music and dance performances on three different stages, take part in workshops or walk around the street market concentrated around Edisonstraat and Frankenstraat.

“This is a very special area,” Roger says. “It’s both typical Maastricht and international. About 30 percent of the people who live here are not originally from Maastricht, that’s one of the highest percentages in the city. On a day like today they all stand next to each other, walk through the market, try each other’s regional specialities and that’s great.”

 Street market

The musical programme offers a large variety of styles, from hip hop to local carnival music to world music. The festival is programmed every year according to a different theme. Last year it was “Gypsy culture”, this year it’s “West Africa”. “We always choose a culture from the Wittevrouwenveld area, which can be linked with the whole of Maastricht,” Roger explains.

Roger is very grateful for the help of the 80 volunteers working on the festival. “I couldn’t manage without them.”

“Our organisation works on four events this year,” he continues. “This is our second and biggest event. The main purpose of the smaller events is the same as that of Manus van Alles: to get the people from this area together. To have a cup of coffee together, or to meet in a church.”

“Last year, for example, we had a big gospel group and, even though nobody goes to church here anymore, a lot of people came for the gospel band! So we decided to include services also in the Manus van Alles festival. In the end, religion is a big part of culture. People don’t go to church anymore here, at all. So in a way, church has to come to them. We started three years ago with our local priest and he invited some people of different religions to speak about their beliefs. That was a great success!”

The Manus van Alles festival takes its name from a typical inhabitant of Wittevrouwenveld. “Manus van Alles is a person who lives here in this neighbourhood and who is unemployed, drinks a beer, has a cigarette in his mouth and just looks around and doesn’t do anything. He’s like a character out of a comic book. This area is an environment of hardworking people. A bit like lower class, but in a good way. It’s typical for people here to stand outside on the street, talk with other people, have a drink, have a cigarette and that was really how it was in the old Wittenvrouwenveld.”

“Manus van alles” statue

“It had a special charm and I think that with our festival we show another side of Maastricht, other than the one you know from the centre. Most events in the city are for middle or higher class people. But here, anybody can come. Ordinary people can feel that it’s their festival. I personally think that events should be for all the people and not just for the chosen ones. In a way we are a visiting card that we can give to anybody as an invitation because everybody is welcome here.”

Roger hesitates a few seconds when I ask him whether he thinks that Maastricht has a multicultural environment. “It’s a good question, but I have to be very diplomatic to answer it well. I think that Maastricht is very international, but we don’t give everybody a chance to experience it. The people who live around here, they don’t go to the theatre in Maastricht, so we bring culture to them instead. I think it’s a great thing to do.”

 Total Chaos

 Lions of Africa

Dyon Sturtz

Zingende Potsvrouwen (Singing cleaning ladies)

Lost Culture

 Harmonie Ster der Toekomst

Roger tries to get as many people involved in the festival as possible. Even student groups participate. Children from the neighbourhood can take part in rowing or painting workshops organised by student groups.

Street workshops

Roger tells me that he wishes there were even more students involved. So I ask him: “Why is it so difficult to find more information in English on the festival, or why doesn’t the website have an English version? That could encourage international students to get involved.”

“We could use a translator, I know,” Roger admits. “That’s a goal for next year. We should have an English version of our website and make programmes in English maybe. We are still growing, you see. Not everything is possible at the moment, but still, it’s getting better and better. So we will try that next year! Thank you for this advice!” He laughs.

“We will definitely go on with the festival,” Roger continues. “There is a lot to look forward to for the next years! Now this whole area is a construction site, there will be new buildings here next year. This year we had lots of problems because of that - the roads are not ready, the square wasn’t ready so it was a challenge to manage it all.”

“Next year we will still probably have some little problems but the year after that we will have our own park here, we’ll have a nice shopping centre where we can present it all much better. I am looking forward to it!”

So are we!

Text and Photographs by Misia Furtak

Misia Furtak graduated in MA Media Culture of Maastricht University. She is Polish and lives in Maastricht since late 2005. She is also the singer and bass player of the international band très.b.