By Eden van der Moere
Every year on a cold Saturday in October, the city of Middelburg is covered in darkness. The lights on the street are dark, the restaurants burn candles on their tables and the city center is full with people. This Saturday, October 29th, the city will once again transform into a twinkle light festival, with performances, workshops, and candlelight festivities during the N8VDN8.
N8VDN8 stands for Nacht van de Nacht, which translates to Night of the Night. This of course relates to the fact that for one night only, all lights in the city center are dimmed, allowing you to experience the night in ways you never have before. The N8VDN8 is a national initiative, to raise awareness for light pollution and electricity waste. The organization behind the N8VDN8 hopes to inspire people to make less use of wasteful electronic lighting and instead burn candles, fireplaces or seek other alternatives.
But how to experience the N8VDN8 to the fullest? The best way is very simple, to just walk through the candlelit streets of Middelburg. There is a so-called Dark Tour all through town, where you walk past all the N8VDN8 spots, including theater performances, music, art and food stands. In Cinema Middelburg you can watch short films with dark themes (for free!), while in de Kloveniersdoelen itself you can listen to a performance by Eerie Wanda and eat freshly baked pizzas and homemade sandwiches. When you take the Langeviele road towards the market square, you will walk past a fashion show, films screened in shop windows and theater performances in the street. On the market square, you can listen to spooky stories around the campfire, enjoy acoustic music and roast chestnuts. Then when you walk towards the Abbey Square, you will notice strange lights burning in the Nieuwe Kerk and scary stories being told in the Zeeuws Museum. If walking through town isn’t really your thing, you can also enjoy the N8VDN8 in one of the many participating restaurants in town, who offer a special dinner by candlelight.
The N8VDN8 is a great way to see our beloved town of Middelburg in an entirely different light (pun intended), to experience local artistic endeavors, to discover new parts of the city, and to meet new people. For more information on the N8VDN8 in Middelburg and the initiative itself, you can visit their website by clicking right here. The festivities throughout town start around 19:30 and will end at 23:30. Most of the activities are completely free and open to everyone.
Eden van der Moere, Class of 2017, is a Linguistics & Literature major from Goes, the Netherlands.
