Archive 1998 

The 1998 edition marked Ivo van Hove’s first year as the festival’s director and featured New York’s Wooster Group with no less than two performances: The Hairy Ape and House/Lights. Furthermore, Elevator Repair Service, an ensemble that came out of the Wooster Group, was at the festival with Cab Legs, an absurdist, cartoonlike and inventive performance about love. William Kentridge, who would later be one of the festival’s associate artists, directed the Monteverdi opera Il Ritorno D’Uilise in his wholly own way, with equal roles for puppets, actors and musicians. 

1998 was also the year when the Amsterdam Roots Festival was first held in a collaboration with the Holland Festival, Melkweg, the Royal Tropical Institute and the Concertgebouw, with concerts by artists including Femi Kuti and Angelique Kidjo.