Text: Shirley Haasnoot | Photos: Daisy Komen and Peter Valckx
It is Thursday afternoon, 12 June, and the sound of groovy house music is already drifting over from the entrance to the festival grounds. Public Administration Master’s student Lisa Lambert, also known as DJ Lisa, kicks off the evening programme of Déjà VU. With this cheerful festival, students, alumni, staff, and other members of the VU community usher in the summer each year.
Sustainability is one of VU Amsterdam’s key priorities, and on this warm summer evening, it is visible all around the festival grounds. Students chat in deckchairs under colourful balloons and last year’s garlands. Next to a grassy patch where alumni and staff sip beer from reusable plastic cups, display columns explain the projects funded by the VUvereniging, such as the production and distribution of sustainable toilet paper.
In the warm sun, groups of people sway in the sand in front of the main stage. Janneke Schermers, a Medicine alumnus and member of the VUvereniging Members’ Council, is eating a bowl of rice at the Bangkok food truck. “I think it’s a bit quiet,” she says to a friend walking past.
That may be because many Déjà VU attendees have already spent a long afternoon in the Aula at the Summit for Future Generations, and are first having a beer on the crowded terrace of Grand Café Living, just outside the entrance gates.
It is all about emotions this afternoon, says polar explorer Bernice Notenboom
The summit, which replaces last year’s flash lectures and public interviews, focuses on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This afternoon’s programme addresses the big issues of our time: the climate transition, the future of young people, war and diplomacy, and international cooperation in pursuit of peace, security and justice.
This afternoon is all about emotion, says polar explorer and climate journalist Bernice Notenboom during the session Melting Ice, Rising Hope. The Arctic has no voice, she explains, which is why she resorts to “shock therapy”, using powerful imagery to show the devastating effects of climate change.
She shows a photo from her last expedition, just a few years ago. Underneath the polar travelers' tent is a huge crack, where the ice unexpectedly split in half. The travelers were able to get to safety in the nick of time, Notenboom says.
But there is hope for the climate and for the planet, says Jan Rotmans, Professor of Transition Studies at Erasmus University. The global shift towards sustainable energy is now unstoppable. He points to the silent majority: an “undercurrent” of people who recycle, install solar panels, stop eating meat or contribute to a more sustainable world in other ways.
'We stand for students' right to protest'
Recyclable cups are also piling up on the festival grounds, where it is getting crowded from 7 p.m. onward. In the ball pool, two girls are trying to find the golden ball, with which they can win a course at cultural centre Griffioen. And in front of the photobooth there is a long line; here you can have your picture taken with up to five friends, together with a rubber duck or wearing a pink hat.
At the last stall at the festival market, from student union SRVU, interested parties can participate in the t-shirt making experience and paint a white shirt. Red, black and green paint is on hand. "We stand for the right of students to protest," said political science student Mirel Popescu, who just earned his bachelor's degree and has joined as an SRVU board member in the upcoming academic year.
The union also provides legal support, advocates for student housing, and organises a second-hand clothing market to counter the polluting fashion industry. “And we are pushing for free period products on campus,” adds fellow political science student and incoming president Jelle Gnoth.
When the orchestra plays "Aan de Amsterdamse grachten," everyone sings along
On a wicker bench in the shade of the Starthub tent sits Law alumnus Jasper Verhoogt. He shows a photo created by artificial intelligence that shows him in a toga, without glasses and wearing a flat black academic hat. He could also have chosen a wizard outfit or surf suit. This application of AI is being offered today by the VUfonds, which financially supports values-driven research. In doing so, it wants to show that AI offers opportunities but also raises ethical questions.
Verhoogt says he works as a volunteer inventorying archives, at the Historical Documentation Centre for Dutch Protestantism. He recently joined the Council of Members of the VUvereniging. What does he think of the festival? Above the thumping bass of the main stage: "It is pretty loud music.
In a hidden corner of the festival grounds, where under the trees lies the Griffioen stage, the atmosphere is very different. Earplugs are not necessary here when, at 7:30 p.m., some twenty colorfully dressed strings of the unsurpassed VU Orchestra take the stage. Because of the 750th anniversary of the city of Amsterdam, Amsterdam songs are on the programme, as well as the Suite by composer Carl Nielsen.
It seems to be busier here than at the main stage, and when the orchestra plays Aan de Amsterdamse grachten, everyone sings along. Also, the attendees, almost all students, know the lyrics of the song Bloed, zweet en tranen, as if it were the VU song for which Rector Magnificus Jeroen Geurts recently made an appeal. Meanwhile, ice cream man Luciano Gelati passes the rows and hands out cones of vanilla ice cream.
With "Thank you and goodbye," the band heads back to Brabant
More singing follows during Musical Bingo, the grand finale of the Griffioen stage, hosted by drag queens Sederginne and DJ Heisa Jynx. When student Andreas calls a false bingo, he’s sent up on stage to dance, which he does with great enthusiasm.
An hour later, around 9:45 p.m., party band Royal Beat's performance on the main stage comes to an end with 'Let it go' from Disney movie Frozen. With "Thank you and goodbye," the band heads back to Brabant. A group of loyal fans is already waiting for VU Earth Sciences alumnus Yusuf Erol, performing as DJ Stoffer en Blic, who will close the night. Soon, people are dancing under the stars.
One girl, with blue, green and pink curls, is still playing a game of pool on a tiny toy table on Campusplein. At a wooden picnic bench, a group of VU colleagues reflect on the day. As darkness slowly falls, the festival winds down. At the empty stalls of the market, one forgotten poster from the SRVU still hangs. In bold black letters, it reads: 'There is no VU without you.'
Read more about the highlights of the Summit for Future Generations
