On 18 June, Your Flesh and Blood by Jef Neve and Jeroen Olyslaegers will premiere at STROOM. What gives meaning to suffering in a world where old certainties have disappeared? This question forms the starting point of Uw vlees en bloed, A Human Passion by Jeroen Olyslaegers and Jef Neve, a passion play for and about ordinary people. Inspired by the centuries-old tradition of the Passion story, yet rooted in a contemporary humanist view of life, this performance tells the story of an ordinary person.

Welcome to STROOM!

STROOM is celebrating its fifth edition this year—our first milestone anniversary!

We are marking the occasion not with fireworks and cream cake, but with the rich and inspiring programme you have come to expect from us, placing sustainability, nature, water, and the beautiful Scheldt Valley National Park at its heart. This year’s festival features several world premieres, classical and contemporary music, poetry and architecture, concerts, walks, and rituals.

This year, Jeroen Olyslaegers joins us as our Festival Thinker. His boundless creativity runs like a thread throughout the programme. We are also delighted to welcome the world of science to STROOM through a first collaboration with the University of Antwerp.

STROOM is firmly on course and has exciting plans for the future. We warmly thank all our partners who, together with us and the Scheldt Valley National Park, help make this festival such a celebration. We invite everyone to be part of it.

Why not make a weekend of it? Alongside the music, discover walking and cycling routes, boating opportunities, heritage sites, museums, and local culinary specialities.

The entire STROOM team is ready to welcome you.
Sophie Detremmerie and Jan Van den Bossche

Welcome in Dendermonde!

Dear STROOM Visitor,

Welcome to Dendermonde!

Dendermonde is one of the gateway towns to the Scheldt Valley National Park and lies right at its heart. Whether you are attending the world premiere of Your Flesh and Blood, taking part in underSTROOM’s The Receding One, or enjoying one of the riverside concerts during the STROOM Festival, you have the perfect excuse to discover Dendermonde up close—a city with much to offer.

Dendermonde was founded at the confluence of the Rivers Dender and Scheldt, a connection that still defines the city today. Both rivers flow through our city and its surrounding districts, bringing tranquillity, beauty, and opportunities for recreation. Did you know that from the Market Square you can reach the Scheldt by bike in just five minutes, and find yourself surrounded by nature just as quickly on foot? It is a truly unique asset.

Dendermonde is a wonderful place to enjoy good food and shopping, but also to explore its Beguinage and museums. Begin your visit at the Cloth Hall on the Market Square and climb the Belfry. At the top, you will be rewarded with breathtaking views of the city, the Scheldt, and the Scheldt Valley National Park.

Discover, taste, enjoy, and open your heart to Dendermonde during the STROOM Festival—the event where nature, culture, and tourism come together. Dendermonde is a city preparing for the future: a sustainable Dendermonde.

Leen Dierick, mayor and responsible for tourism
Tineke Wauters, responsible for culture

A timeless story

The Passion story of Jesus Christ, as recorded by the Evangelists, is a profoundly dramatic narrative and a recurring theme for many composers. Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St John Passion, performed each year during Holy Week, are among the most celebrated classical oratorios. Through both text and music, they have come to symbolize the suffering that is part of the human condition.

In the suffering of Jesus, people recognize aspects of their own existence, where doubt, fear, pain, and death are unavoidable realities. Within the Christian faith, suffering acquires meaning because it leads to a transition from earthly life—temporary and imperfect—to eternal life in the presence of God. For composers up to the eighteenth century, this context was self-evident. They lived and worked within a religious framework in which all experiences, both joyful and painful, ultimately derived their meaning from the prospect of life after death.

These classical Passions remain deeply moving musical works, yet they no longer provide an obvious answer to contemporary audiences seeking meaning in suffering. For many people, belief in eternal life and in a divine being has been replaced by a scientifically informed conviction that human beings must take responsibility for their own lives during the brief time they inhabit this earth. At the same time, every person is confronted with pain and suffering—personally, through loved ones, and through our shared awareness of the hardships faced by others around the world.

What meaning can be found in suffering? Where does the humanist find comfort? Where can one draw the confidence needed to face suffering? How can we preserve our sense of self in a world marked by pain and death? Can music and poetry offer answers to these questions?

It was from these reflections that Patrick Windmolders, artistic director and conductor of the vocal ensemble Reflection, conceived the idea of creating and performing a humanist Passion. The work would take the form of a classically structured oratorio, but its text would tell the story of the suffering of an ordinary person—a noble unknown.

As in the Passion of Christ, this individual is confronted with betrayal, fear, doubt, physical violence, and emotional suffering. How does one respond to these experiences? Where does one find the strength to resist or to accept? How can human dignity endure in moments of despair and pain?

Uw vlees en bloed  seeks not only to move its audience through the beauty of its music and the power of its text, but also to suggest that negative experiences are an integral part of a meaningful life. The end of life is an inevitable aspect of being human, yet it need not prevent us from shaping our own lives in connection with others while we are here.

Want to know more about Uw vlees en bloed?