If the schedule of the Ameland Rôggefestival (Rye Festival) is anything to go by, Fleur’s performance should have ended already. However, as soon as we enter the festival grounds, her voice still belts over the field filled with children and their parents. In the meantime, Gospel choir Inspirit is making valiant attempts to produce a polyphonic counter sound from the other side of the meadow. The Ameland women’s choir is accompanied by a three-piece band. Despite their high microphones, the voices do not beat Fleur’s singalong party. Inspirit’s loudspeakers are simply too modest for this open-air festival. The audience stands close by and encourages the vocalists, whipped up by their enthusing conductor Julia van Houten. People sing and clap along with gospel evergreens like ‘Amen’, ‘Wade In The Water’ and ‘Oh Happy Day’. Some powerful gusts of wind that blew the stage down a few hours earlier have affected the programming.
From a centrally positioned helicopter, DJ collective ‘Zeepbellen’ (soap bubbles) send a varied music mix to the speakers on the stage. The circus tent announces its last performance and the food and drink counters (‘Only pin!’) set up along the field do good business.
Frans Bauer enters the huge stage exactly on time. The cheerful singer tells that this is his first visit to Ameland. He describes his rough crossing to the island: “I slid to and fro like a meatball!” The few clouds that still hung above the stage disappear as soon as his hit song ‘Heb Je Even Voor Mij’ (‘Do You Have A Moment For Me?’) begins. All hands go up into the air. At the stylishly black dressed singer’s request the audience starts a polonaise.
Security personnel help a wheelchair-bound fan get a good spot at the front. A young boy in a shiny red jacket gets the chance to join the singer on stage. Bauer sings his first hit ‘Als Sterren Aan De Hemel Staan’ (‘When Stars Are In The Sky Again’). The young lad who still joins him has no intention of relinquishing his spot and Bauer appoints him ‘De Koning Van Het Feest’ (‘The King of the Party’). He calls on the audience to point at the king in his red jacket during the chorus of the song. After ‘Hoofd, Schouders, Knieën, Teen’ (‘Head, Shoulders, Knees And Toe’), Bauer takes a bath in the audience. He then struggles to climb back on stage: “I have been trying to lose weight for 30 years.” Bauer closes his Ameland debut by performing ‘Heb Je Even Voor Mij’ again. Half an hour is too short for the growing audience and Bauer can start on an encore: “Do you want a soft or a hard song?” Ameland roars “Hard”. Bauer takes off his jacket to let loose in the authentic Rammstein-cover ‘Du Hast’ (‘You Have’). It must be music to the ears of the many German tourists on this island. “The boat will wait for me a little while,” says Bauer when he starts singing ‘Hoofd, Schouders, Knieën, Teen’ (‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’) again.
As skilfully as Frans Bauer manages to forge a field full of individuals into a partying unit, the members of Ramblin’ Boots announce their songs a bit clumsily. The country music they play, however, sounds well chiseled and catchy. After ‘Ring of Fire’, they do their version of ‘Country Roads’. They sing John Denver’s lyrics (‘West Virginia’) and not Hessel’s rendition, who performs this song on a daily basis on the nearby Wadden Island (‘West-Terschelling’).
Diep Triest knows how to play the field. The group has played grief songs for more than 25 years. The vocalists Theo Driessen and Sandy Goeree have an impressive range to shape their catchy covers. Their repertoire ranges from André Hazes senior and junior (‘Bloed, Zweet en Tranen’, ‘Leef!’, ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’, ‘Live!’), the Scene (‘Blauw’, ‘Blue’) and Claudia de Breij (‘Mag Ik Dan Bij Jou’, ‘May I Be With You’). In the meantime, a huge truck with the name Queen on it drives backwards towards the stage.
The large number of children on the field, often in front of the speakers without ear protection, is striking. The wind comes from the north and the temperature drops by about one degree per hour. During Bökkers’ performance, we decide to warm up at home. With an extra shirt and jacket, we cycle over a pitch dark road without crossing the municipal boundaries of Nes. We witness the tail end of a performance by Starstruck. Singer Marcel seems rather taken with himself and can hardly say goodbye: “Do you want more?” The audience replies in a lukewarm manner but gets an encore anyway. “See you later in a café somewhere in Nes,” Marcel cries hopefully as he finally leaves the stage.
Finally, the Dutch tribute band Queen Must Go On takes over. They start their show with hits from the entire Queen bandwidth: from the 70s (‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Somebody To Love’) to the latter days (‘Who Wants To Live Forever’, ‘I Want It All’). Freddie Mercury’s charisma is unmatchable. That’s a handicap that the real Queen has to deal with as well. Once Ward Palmen’s vocal chords have warmed up, however, he does produce impressive high notes that he can hold on to for a long time.
After an intimate solo intermezzo by Palmen, during which he plays a moving version of ‘Love Of My Life’, the enthusiasm on Ameland increases. With some digital help, the group even dares to perform ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Three partying ladies in front of us decide to climb a high table, which not only bends heavily, but also starts to wobble in a nerve wracking manner. The ‘yellow jackets’, who earlier in the day forcefully intervened and resolutely sent back people with pets, are nowhere to be seen. Queen Must Go On closes with the massively sung along ‘We Are The Champions’. We prefer not to wait to see whether the table holds up. While DJ Jan Spoor blares Herman Brood’s ‘Saturday Night’ into the air we try to find our bicycles. On our way back, we look in awe at the many stars, eternalized by Frans Bauer, that are so clearly visible in the sky on Ameland.
Queen Must Go On – Radio GaGa Live (fragment):
Rôggefestival 5 augustus 2022
Nes, Ameland