Translation of Dutch text by Shirley Haasnoot / Photos: Peter Valckx
It’s bustling at 5:00 p.m. at Grand Café LIVING on Campus Square. Members, friends, the board, and the members’ council of the VUvereniging are gathering here for a drink and a red wristband that grants access to the Déjà VU Festival. But it’s cold outside, and no one seems in a hurry to step out into the rain and onto the festival grounds.
This year, Déjà VU kicks off under a leaden gray sky. True to tradition, the summer festival brings the VU community together, and in the grand café, old friends are happy to see each other. This includes alumna and VU Association member Daphne Duif, who has brought her baby daughter Vera (2) and has arranged to meet her old college friend Olaf van Zon. They started studying artificial intelligence together in 2000, Daphne explains. 'We’re the AI 00 class.'
Olaf: 'We’ve both moved away from Amsterdam now, but we still have a small group of friends we meet up with sometimes.' Daphne: 'I really enjoyed my studies.' Are they heading to the festival grounds to dance? Olaf: 'I’m not really a dancer.' Daphne: 'But we were here last year too; it was really hot then, and we danced salsa on the sidelines.'
Déjà VU, originally created by students, has grown into a laid-back festival for the entire VU community, featuring cover bands and DJs, a festival market, and food trucks from Bangkok Street Food and Pizza Joe. It takes place outdoors on the campus square, where this year the lights, sound amplifiers, and other electronics are wrapped in plastic. A good idea, because starting at 5:30 p.m., it starts raining heavily.
At the festival market, Sylvia van Glabbeek isn’t cold; she’s eating a 'raketje' ice cream. Behind her stall, she talks about the campaign that the VU Fund is organizing together with the Dutch Autism Register (NAR) to support autism research. 'It’s important and good to do that.' As we leave, she gives us her last blue VU umbrella.
Festivalgoers are lining up to hit rock-hard tennis balls at a tower of cans
Next door, at the booth of A.S.T.P.V. Chip & Charge, the Amsterdam Student Tennis & Padel Association, it’s all fun and games. Here, festivalgoers are lining up to hit rock-hard tennis balls at a tower of cans from close range. Every attempt is cheered on, even though the balls fly in all directions and the lemonade machine gets hit too.
Across the way, we’re practicing a bit of sign language. 'We are the Dutch chapter of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA),' says incoming president Neslihan Akçakuş. The medical education working group coordinator, Ifunaya Nwoke, signs: 'I would like some soda.' And as she rubs her right cheek with her right hand: 'Please.' Visitors who can mimic that flawlessly get to take a can of Fernandes.
Neslihan recommends that we go decorate vagina-shaped cupcakes at a student organization down the hall that promotes sexual health. But the only cupcakes we can find are on the table of the student union SRVU. And there, the focus is mainly on political issues, says Daniël Jameux, a mechanical engineering student. 'Like affordable student housing and safety on campus.'
There are plenty of outdoor jackets and gold-rimmed VU Association sunglasses
The VU has a strict no-waste policy, but necessity knows no law: soon, yellow rain ponchos are being handed out and are in high demand. This year’s fashion scene is definitely less extravagant than at previous festivals. It’s too cold and wet for short dresses or sandals, face paint, and glitter. We mainly see a lot of outdoor jackets and body warmers, but also faux fur, flower crowns , and the gold-rimmed VU Association sunglasses, which are given away as a gift and turn out to be a handy headband.
Fortunately, there are places to take shelter. Alumni gather at the Alumni Meeting Point for a chat and a drink token. There’s a long line at the tarot card reading. And the 'Brain Bites' and 'Meet the Scientist' sessions with VU scientists in the greenhouse—a sort of glass conservatory—are also popular. An open, red-and-white toy-like bus full of cheerful students speeds across the grounds. But where is the bus stop?
So off to the art & craft tent. Here, in the twilight, long tables are set up with bins of beads, paint pots, and brushes. People are crafting with intense concentration. Two students are showing off their little paintings. Noor Noman painted a duck wearing a hat, Louise Bardet a girl ('my sister') with a mountain landscape in the background. How long have they known each other? 'We just met,' says Louise. 'But we’re both artists. So we get along well.'
Passing a few lone hula-hoop dancers, we walk to the English-language theater workshop at VU Griffioen. Spectators watch the improvisation on the small lawn behind the flower bed full of exuberantly blooming daisies and thistles. 'Do you want to dance?' asks a girl with soaking-wet pant legs under her yellow poncho. 'Yeah, for sure,' replies her improv partner, and together they spin around. Meanwhile, salsa music is playing from the main stage. About 75 people are swaying along to it, waiting for Latin pop and hip-hop artist QUIQUE. Are Daphne and Olaf there too? They’re unrecognizable among the rain ponchos.
Suddenly, we see the colorful hammocks of the Relaxerette spinning above the fence
We take a quick break, heading back to LIVING, to dry off on a sheepskin rug with hot chocolate. And there we suddenly see the colorful hammocks of the Relaxerette spinning above the festival fence. Back on the grounds, we see that a small group of people has even formed a line, eager to spin around in a hammock with headphones playing soothing music despite the rain. A group of people has also gathered at the yellow party bus. They are the friends of singer-songwriter and VU student Karly Go, cheering her on through the open bus windows.
And then the rain finally lets up, until it’s dry later in the evening. The Uilenkatten DJs from the popular Uilenstede collective take over from Karly Go and play dance music in the party bus for the rest of the evening. In the Relaxerette, the laid-back VU partygoers swing in their hammocks until it gets too cold around 10:00 p.m.
At the main stage, a sea of yellow ponchos dances to the music of disco-hip-hop band DUTCH COAST and favorite alumni DJ Stoffer & Blic. And so the die-hards of Déjà VU 2026 are proven right after all, despite the wind chill dropping below 12 degrees. Because where better to dance than at a festival? And those who dance don’t feel the cold.
