Qualla: Afrika Festival Hertme https://qualla.com/afrika-festival-hertme en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:34 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/k/c/afrika-festival-hertme-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Afrika Festival Hertme https://qualla.com/afrika-festival-hertme Afrika Festival Hertme: Introduction https://qualla.com/afrika-festival-hertme/ Photo credit Vysotsky, CC BY-SA 3.0. Hertme has roughly 500 residents. For one weekend each summer, that number multiplies. Thousands of people drive into the village, set up at the open-air theatre, and listen to musicians from Mali and Senegal and Ethiopia and Zimbabwe play to a Dutch farming audience. The math is implausible. A village this small should not be able to mount a festival that the British magazine Songlines voted into Europe's top twenty-five three years running. Yet it does, with about 400 volunteers, which means almost every Hertme resident old enough to lift a folding chair has a job to do that weekend. The festival started in 1989 with a single visiting dance group from Burkina Faso. It has not stopped.

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Image: Vysotsky | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/k/c/afrika-festival-hertme-wp/u1kc-afrika-festival-hertme-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Afrika Festival Hertme: A Doctor's Festival https://qualla.com/afrika-festival-hertme/ Photo credit Vysotsky, CC BY-SA 3.0. Much of the credit for keeping the Afrika Festival alive belongs to Rob Lokin, a retired general practitioner from the area who became the driving organizer. In 2010 the Dutch Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation awarded him the Silver Carnation, a national honor for volunteer cul...

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Image: Vysotsky | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/k/c/afrika-festival-hertme-wp/u1kc-afrika-festival-hertme-a-doctors-festival.mp3 0:06 2 full Afrika Festival Hertme: The Lineup https://qualla.com/afrika-festival-hertme/ Photo credit Vysotsky, CC BY-SA 3.0. Read the artist list and you read three decades of the major figures of African music. Oumou Sangare and Salif Keita from Mali. Youssou N'Dour from Senegal. Hugh Masekela and the Mahotella Queens from South Africa. Oliver Mtukudzi from Zimbabwe. Tinariwen from the Sahara. Femi Ku...

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Image: Vysotsky | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/k/c/afrika-festival-hertme-wp/u1kc-afrika-festival-hertme-the-lineup.mp3 0:06 3 full Afrika Festival Hertme: The Village That Says Yes https://qualla.com/afrika-festival-hertme/ Photo credit Vysotsky, CC BY-SA 3.0. Hertme sits in the municipality of Borne in the Twente region, low rolling farmland between the Dinkel and the German border. The Openluchttheater Hertme, the open-air theatre that hosts the festival, sits in a natural bowl that the audience treats as their living room for the we...

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Image: Vysotsky | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/k/c/afrika-festival-hertme-wp/u1kc-afrika-festival-hertme-the-village-that-says-yes.mp3 0:06 4 full Afrika Festival Hertme: Why Africa, Why Here https://qualla.com/afrika-festival-hertme/ Photo credit Vysotsky, CC BY-SA 3.0. The origin story is almost too simple to believe. In 1989, a dance group from Burkina Faso performed in the open-air theatre, more or less by accident of programming. The response was strong enough that someone decided to do it again the next year, and then again. There was no ma...

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Image: Vysotsky | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/u/1/k/c/afrika-festival-hertme-wp/u1kc-afrika-festival-hertme-why-africa-why-here.mp3 0:06 5 full