From June 18 to July 6, STROOM fills the Scheldevallei for the fourth time with music and imagination. The location-based festival is a collaboration between Festival van Vlaanderen Gent and Nationaal Park Scheldevallei and raises awareness about sustainability by connecting culture with nature. STROOM makes the artist's voice heard in the societal debate through concerts, poetic installations and conversations in idyllic and green spaces between Gent and Antwerpen. The festival is ecological in both design and content, with sustainability, water and climate at the heart of both practice and artistic narratives. A wind symphony or music with Scheldewater are among the most imaginative projects of this edition. Expect renowned names such as Tan Dun, Pieter Embrechts, Maud Van Hauwaert, Lisette Ma Neza and Elise Caluwaerts, Philippe Thuriot and Casco Phil. For the first time this year there is also a festival thinker: Maarten Inghels wrote a poem that runs as a green-blue thread throughout the festival. Co-directors Sophie Detremmerie and Jan Van den Bossche, together with Tom Wezenbeek, coordinator of Nationaal Park Scheldevallei, present a thought-provoking programme.
The festive opening of STROOM 2025 is given singing on 18 June with Riversong, 1000 voices and 1 night. At Donkmeer in Berlare, the renowned choir Octopus performs works by, among others, Fauré and Rachmaninov, while the warm voice of Pieter Embrechts invites the audience to join in singing. At sunset, the choir swells like a growing river. "We are a nomadic festival," says business director and founder of STROOM Sophie Detremmerie, "but one line connects everything: the river." Water is naturally also central to Chinese-American composer and Unesco Global Goodwill Ambassador Tan Dun. On 26 June, he conducts the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen in the impressive turbine hall of the old power plant Interescaut in Schelle. His programme lets the water speak literally. Percussionist Lin Zhe plays two water basins filled with Scheldewater for his Water Concerto. The audience that evening can also enjoy a sip of purified river water, processed into the soft drink Riolimo. In addition to water, wind is also part of the festival programme. On 2 July, Casco Phil together with Elise Caluwaerts performs in the Antwerpen harbour The Sound of Green Power, a 'wind symphony' based on data from the wind turbines of Vleemo. Composer Peter Knockaert wrote a score based on actual wind speeds, translated via algorithms developed at the Universiteit Antwerpen. The voice of Frank Deboosere clearly introduces this fascinating interplay of music, technology and climate data.
A STROOM of experiences
STROOM also ventures beyond purely musical shores. Writer and poet Maarten Inghels wrote a festival poem and conceived a text installation that will be readable on the blades of the mill in Puurs-Sint-Amands. He also leads three public conversations around the question: "What role can or should we take as individuals in the climate story?" Not only during the conversation evenings with Inghels himself, but at all concert venues, visitors are invited to pause and reflect on the questions raised by his poem: "What does responsibility mean in a landscape that is changing? And how can art contribute to awareness and connection?" The festival poem thus becomes a poetic compass guiding visitors on their journey through the Scheldevallei.
The Berlin-based international artist collective Plastique Fantastique strengthens this message. During the opening weekend, it presents a large-scale installation in the Kruibeeske polder for three days. A huge distillation flask filters Scheldewater that ultimately flows back into the river. In this way, the installation visualizes the process of evaporation, transformation and return. The artwork, complete with an accompanying soundscape, symbolizes circular ecology and collaboration between art, science and technology. "STROOM is not a classical festival," explains artistic director Jan Van den Bossche, "it is a laboratory for imagination where artists and thinkers in their own way reflect on the future of our planet. This year the festival goes more radical than ever before in dialogue with its visitors about science, technology and ecology."
Here flows beauty
During STROOM there is also room for lyrical beauty. In Hingene, people are looking forward to the shortest night of the year with the magical Marimba in Moonlight. At the edge of the forest of Kasteel d'Ursel, visitors can drift away on a field bed under the starry sky to minimalist music by Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt and Steve Reich, arranged for marimbas. On the Dendermonde Galeideweide, the British Orchestra for the Earth performs on 28 June under the heading The Heavenly Life the poetic Fourth Symphony by Gustav Mahler in an arrangement for chamber orchestra. Conductor John Warner also adds work by Schönberg and Schumann and Mexican mezzo-soprano Gloria Mohica performs the ethereal final song. Add a summer sunset to that and the paradisiacal experience is complete.
The STROOMboat sails again through National Park Scheldevallei. Nine times the ship moors at a different location along the Scheldt, Dender and Rupel for a free Riverbank Concert. The timing is determined by the tides. The STROOMboat also forms a floating stage for the artists this edition, while the public can enjoy the concert from the riverbanks. Young visitors are also considered: during the Foam Head workshop, children make music with water, rhythm and imagination. The Riverbank Concerts are also suitable for young and old alike.
On 6 July, Sunday Sessions closes the festival in the idyllic triangle of Sint-Amands, Mariekerke, Moerzeke. Here three concerts take place on three riverbanks, connected by a ferry. To complete this day of deceleration and reflection, picnic baskets are ready for the public to pick up at their convenience. In Sint-Amands, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra performs with accordionist Philippe Thuriot the contemplative programme Looking Within, with new compositions by Bert Joris. In Mariekerke, celebrated clarinetist Annelien Van Wauwe brings a meditative solo with excerpts from the Sutra by late Wim Henderickx dedicated to her. In Moerzeke, poets Maud Vanhauwaert and Lisette Ma Neza bring climate poetry, accompanied by the magical sounds of the ney, an ancient predecessor of the flute, and the more familiar bagpipe.
Genuine Sustainability
In 2024, the festival organization became the first music festival to receive the VOKA Charter Sustainable Entrepreneurship (VCOD) and has been appointed as an ambassador for sustainability for the entire Flemish festival sector, in collaboration with VITO. Detremmerie emphasizes that STROOM promotes sustainability not only in its theme but also in its operations: "We measure the CO₂ emissions of our organization and all our suppliers, we leave locations better than we found them, and we buy locally: eighty percent of our suppliers come from the Scheldevallei." STROOM also works with DeWaterbus to bring the public to concerts in an environmentally friendly way. "As a nomadic festival, of course we have quite a bit of technical equipment that needs to be set up and dismantled and transported. But we've found a solution for this too; a single electric truck as a mobile warehouse for everything we have." Biodiversity is protected or even increased at all locations. The public can also make a donation, with proceeds going to concrete nature investments such as a bat hotel or the creation of a fish-free pond for the crested newt.
Together with the artists, partners and the public, STROOM celebrates the beauty of the planet and the commitment to preserve it.