On Friday 13 June 2025, the Oerol Festival was officially opened by hosts Lin An Phoa, Daan Doesborgh and Teddy Tops. Together with Managing Director Mikey Martins and Artistic Director Sabine Pater, they welcomed all visitors to festival hub de Deining, on behalf of everyone who makes Oerol possible this year. Lin An Phoa brought it all together through the power of poetry. Below is the poem she recited.
If You Are an Island
you leave the mainland with a longing to let something go
you peel off the past few months, lay the latest headlines beside you on the quay, you board the boat and know that other ships on other waters may never reach the far shore
but you hope that between one coast and the next
your thoughts may set sail
you hope the open sea offers you some space for now
you hope that on another ground, everything might live a little slower
soon, you’ll pull yourself against the wind through the dunes
take a brief, cold plunge in the early morning
you’ll weather a sudden summer storm with no time to seek shelter
you’ll lay a poncho on a muddy patch of ground
you’ll forgive the ground
forget the rain
forget all that drags you down – just for now –
a sea lies between you and your worries
a view awaits you, ready to get lost in endlessly
there is a dune lake where you wade into the beginning of our being
there are places for conversations that face discomfort
there is a forest that questions how we present ourselves to the world
there are ladders and bodies trying to find balance
and you want that too – that balance, not to be constantly shifted
not constantly overwhelmed by reports of disasters and wars
maybe you came here to forget the world
maybe you were escaping a faltering conscience
maybe you live here, and this has always been your life, just a little more artistic these weeks
maybe you believe a festival isn’t a place for politics
but art is resistance when the world is being poisoned
and maybe most of all, you just need a break from these times
perhaps the island offers you a way to feel more human again
but this island is also the world
what happens here does not stand alone
all the artists are also people lying awake at night
who worry, read the papers, strike and protest
who, despite all the misery, don’t turn their backs on the world
but make music of it, dance, poetry, or theatre
installations full of questions that will still gnaw at you when you return
I hope you gnaw, ask questions, talk and let yourself be touched
I hope you don’t take a break –
but that you do recharge here
with the forest, the sea, the people and all these stories
I hope you are not an island that can no longer connect
I hope you are an island where you can find something again of yourself,
of the human you’d also like to be at home
I hope you take something beautiful with you
from this world in miniature
