Notes

1. This is a revised version of an article that will appear in Dutch in a volume edited by Irene Stengs. I greatly appreciate the helpful comments by Irene Stengs and an anonymous reviewer. I am however solely responsible for its content. Research for this article was made possible by NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) and the Meertens Insitute.

2. An obvious idea is that this ‘multiculturalization’ is a consequence of the subsidy providers’ demands. This did not prove to be an adequate explanation in interviews with organizers of the Pasar Malam Besar, the Kwakoe and the Summer Carnival, monocultural festivals that are more or less multiculturalized. In the Pasar Malam and Kwakoe budgets, subsidy is just a small item. In the Rotterdam Summer Carnival it is not, but there no demands are made towards linking multiculturalization to the subsidy. This does not mean that the festivals do not feel this pressure at all. Subsidy to Pasar Malam for instance, was earlier rejected because the money would have benefited only one group. In following applications the organization tried to define the festival as more multicultural.

3. Though the music on offer at all three festivals is indicated as ‘world music’, one glance at the programmes instantly shows differences. At the Festival Mundial for instance, in addition to ‘exotic artists’ there are also native white Dutch artists and bands of an ethnic tinge such as Hind, Beef and Di-rect. At Roots and Dunya these are absent. In harmony with the names of the tents, at the Dunya festival we find more ‘traditional’ music typical for certain musical traditions from various continents.

4. In comparison: in 2004 Mundial and Roots had about 50,000 visitors. Hence the Dunya festival is by far the largest of the three.

5. Also at the Haschiba festival in The Hague, a multicultural neighbourhood festival, Moroccan mint tea was sold in a Turkish stall that had köfte rolls as well.

6. Other Turkish festivals offer a similar representation of Turkish identity. For instance in 2006 at a Turkish bazaar in East Amsterdam organized by the White Tulip Foundation, we found similar elements such as an exhibition of Turkish handicraft, an Ottoman Corner and Turkish dishes such as lahmacun, sarma and börek.

7. At other festivals, such as the Indonesian Pasar Malam in The Hague and the Kwakoe festival in Amsterdam-Bijlmer, the products on offer support the identity of the group linked to the festival. Moreover, this ethnic group is anticipated, and the multculti lifestyle much less so. For instance, though at the Indonesian Pasar Malam one can encounter the Canadian dream catcher, it are primarily Indonesian and Asian objects which are sold. And the food also is mainly Indonesian.

8. The Kwakoe festival in Amsterdam-Bijlmer seems to have developed in the same way. It began as a soccer tournament, intended as a summer recreation for newcomers to the Bijlmer. These were mainly from Surinam. But then other Bijlmer groups (mainly from African nations), also wanted to do something at the festival. Their soccer teams participated in the tournament, but they also hired tents where they sold African snacks and drinks. Meanwhile the concept ‘multicultural festival’ became so established that Kwakoe also profiles itself as such.

9. Not to be confused with the Roots festival at the same Oosterpark in Amsterdam, in the opening paragraph of the present article.

10. Cf. also Roodenburg (2005, 223). To a significant extent, a gender hierarchy is supported by a bodily experience. Feminist actions aimed at unmasking a ‘false conscience’ in women, do not touch the core of this pre-reflexive bodily experience, and thus are doomed to fail.