Skip to main content
education and youth projects

education and youth projects

Holland Festival as a learning environment

 

For many years, the Holland Festival has provided space for young thinkers, dreamers, and doers. Through workshops, encounters, and tailor-made programmes, young people, students, and (young) professionals are introduced to performing arts from around the world. They meet artists, attend performances, and engage in conversations about major themes.

Participation, exploration, and connection are central. Because young people are both the audience and the creators of tomorrow.

 

Would you like to attend a performance or collaborate with your class, study programme, or organisation?
Email our education coordinator Flora Dekkers at [email protected].

 

We’d love to think along with you!

  • Secondary schools

    International top artists, current themes and new artforms: the Holland Festival wants to introduce performing arts to students in a direct and creative way. Selected performances are accompanied by workshops and teaching programmes in which pupils get to work themselves - reflecting, imagining and researching. The programmes fit in well with CKV, Art and Drama and are tailored to the school. 

  • Art education, HBO & WO

    For students in art education, HBO and WO, the Holland Festival develops tailor-made programmes: from workshops to research projects and meetings with international makers. Under the name Exploratorium, Holland Festival programmes productions in cooperation with Dutch conservatoires in which conservatoire students collaborate with internationally renowned makers and performers. 

  • MBO

    From decor to technical production, from hospitality to content creation: the Holland Festival offers MBO students a look behind the scenes. Through guided tours, open days, assignments and internships, they get to know the profession. Within HF Lab, students form their own production team and create content about their festival experience. 

  • Youth organisations

    The Holland Festival likes to work with initiatives that reach young people outside mainstream education, such as Toekomst Muziek and Stichting Eiwerk. Together, we look for ways to involve more young people in the festival. 

Projects 2025

HF Lab
HF Lab is one of Holland Festival's youth programmes. With workshops, practical experience and their own stage where they can share their vision, creations and experience, young people are actively involved in the festival.  

→ more info

  • HF Lab Workshops

    For IMC Weekendschool, Hyperion Lyceum, Gerrit van der Veen College and Life Skills, the festival designed tailor-made programmes that included dance workshops in voguing, butoh, and ‘Wat draag je?’, a workshop by DEGASTEN, on identity and fashion. Participants were also given behind-the-scenes access, meet & greets with Trajal Harrell and creative assignments linked to the festival programme. 

  • HF Lab x DEGASTEN: WAKKA

    In collaboration with DEGASTEN, twelve HF Lab programmers delved into Trajal Harrell’s work and the theme of identity. Over ten sessions, they developed an own performance: WAKKA, a performance blending dance, theatre and fashion, about the path you’ve walked and how this shaped you as who you are now - and who you would like to become.

  • HF x CvA: On-site

    Twelve conservatory students (classical, pop, live electronics, jazz, early music) took a deep dive into the Holland Festival, exploring both the organisational and artistic sides of the festival through masterclasses, festival team sessions, visits to performances and meetings with artists.

  • JINC Flash Internship

    Students from the Koninklijke Visio, a school for visually impaired students, spent a day exploring the world of the festival, meeting the Holland Festival team, touring the Muziekgebouw and programming their own festival. 

  • IMC Weekendschool

    A group of IMC Weekendschool alumni attended the opening and dance performance Cyber Subin by choreographer Pichet Klunchun as well as Trajal Harrell’s Caen Amour at the Stedelijk Museum, where they enjoyed a unique look behind the scenes, a guided tour by two Blikopeners and met Trajel Harrell. 

  • Life Skills

    Young people from the Life Skills after-school organisation took part in a three-day programme to familiarise themselves with the festival. They were given looks behind the scenes, attended a voguing workshop, visited the performance WAKKA (see below) and joined a Visit to Welcome to Asbestos Hall. 

  • HF x UvA: Writers Residency

    Eight dramaturgy students from the University of Amsterdam share their reflections on festival performances. What strikes them?

    The students follow the festival closely and produce their first reflections within 24 hours of attending a performance.

    Read here

Projects '23-'24

  • Sisyphe - Gerrit van der Veen College

    In a physical workshop series with theatre collective DeRonde/Deroo, theatre students translated their personal challenges into movement. The course ended in a visit to Sisyphe and an improvisational performance of their own at school. 

  • Depois do Silêncio - IMC Weekendschool

    Alumni of IMC Weekendschool had a conversation with Christiane Jatahy and attended her performance. A powerful example of how art allows often unheard voices to be heard. 

  • Crossings - VO-programme

    250 students reflected about ‘home’ through creative assignments, a spoken word workshop by Luan Buleshkaj and a master class by Discussiëren Kun Je Leren. 

  • Sisyphe - Mediacollege Amsterdam

    45 ‘Game Design’ students visited Sisyphe, preceded by a substantive introduction to the festival. 

  • Sisyphe Lesson Sheet

    Three creative CKV assignments around Sisyphe, usable before and after the performance visit by CKV/Art teachers.  

     

    View the lesson materials here

  • Exploratorium

    Fifty conservatoire students collaborated on the production 11,000 Saiten, together with leading creators. This extra-curricular collaboration will have a structural follow-up under the name Exploratorium, based on Karlheinz Stockhausen's idea. 

  • HF x CvA

    Students of the Conservatory of Amsterdam immersed themselves in spatial composition through master classes, performance visits and meetings with makers. The project ended in a concert in Q-Factory. 

  • HF x Toekomst Muziek

    Young people from Amsterdam Southeast visited several performances, met international artists and discovered the festival before and behind the scenes. 

  • HF x Eiwerk

    A workshop series on melancholy with participants from Eiwerk, culminating in a visit to Melencolia and a final concert with their own work. 

  • Flash internship JINC

    Eleven Calandlyceum students immersed themselves for a day in the world of the festival. They took a guided tour and designed their own ‘festival in 1 day’. 

  • The Disintegration Loops (2023)

    Students at Gerrit van der Veen College made their own sound recordings about freedom and collectively put together an album inspired by the performance that was shown on the square of their school. 

  • Euphoria (2023)

    For the film installation Euphoria, we developed a lesson plan and organised a CKV day for 120 pupils together with the Hyperion. 

HF Lab is made possible with the support of the ELJA Foundation.
Holland Festival as a learning environment is supported in 2025 by Fonds 21.

Contact

Would you like to attend a performance or collaborate with your class, study programme, or organisation?
Email our education coordinator Flora Dekkers at [email protected] or get in touch via the contact form.

 

We would love to think along with you about the possibilities!