Events 2024
Old Fashioned Fun!
Foxton's Big Dutch Day Out
Come and celebrate Koningsdag (Dutch King's Day) with colourful family festivities - in arts and heritage town Foxton, on Saturday 27 April - right next to Windmill De Molen.
As part of the official opening of Dutch Week, the Oranjehof museum will unveil its 'new' Flying Dutchman - a model of Abel Tasman's flagship De Heemskerck - which brought him and 110 sailors to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1642. Eric Hill from Cambridge created the 2m by 2m ship, and generously donated it to the Dutch Community. It's now floating in the Tasman Room, right above Abel's other ship De Zeehaen.
So bring the kids or grandchildren, and join the family fun. We have an 'Origins' Art Competition with no less than 10 generous prizes to give away. So sit down and create an art work that shows De Molen, combined with something iconic from your own personal ethnic culture - your whakapapa, your ethnic origins.
But wait, there's muuuuch more... Try out Oud-Hollandse Spelen like clog throwing, sack jumping, steltlopen (stilt walking), blikkengooien or rope-skipping. Let the keen little voetballers, shoot a voetbal at a target goal with holes in it. And listen to the cheerful tunes of two old street organs - De Lieve Stem from 1880 and De Papagaai from the 1960s.
Big Dutch Day Out
An Orange Bike Ride, Yummie Foods, Castle Games, Old Odd Dutch Games, Straatorgel Muziek, Art Competition - Kunst voor de Kinders!
Sit down with the family on an orange blanket, and create some Art Pieces - kunstwerken. Win a Prize!
Your artworks will be judged, and displayed in our Foyer - next to stunning 'Origins' artworks by 'real' artists in our Mapuna - Kabinet art gallery.
10.00 am
Stage Outside WELCOME: MC, Arjan van der Boon + De Molen Host, Judy Langen
OFFICIAL START: Big Dutch Day Out + Dutch Week
MIHI: Mana Whenua / SPEECH: Ambassador Ard v. d. Vorst + Mayor Bernie Wanden
OPENING: Judy + Ard – Street Organ ‘De Lieve Stem’ Plays ‘Daar bij die Molen’
10.30 am PUBLIC ART COMPETITION Starts in Park ‘n Paddock: Plus Castle Games / Oud-Hollandse Spelen / Voetbal / Street organ De Lieve Stem / Traditional Costume Photo Booth
11.00 am ‘Origins’ ART EXHIBITION Opening: Māpuna - Kabinet Art Gallery, Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom. Ceremony: Oranjehof Co-Chair + Judges
11. 30pm UNVEILING of De Heemskerck: VIPs reveal 2m*2m model ship: Tasman’s Flying Dutchman
12. 00pm PUBLIC ART brought into Foyer: VIP Judges decide Winners / Art Pieces put on display
1.00 pm Māpuna - Kabinet art gallery
Prize-Givings: ARTIST Prizes + PUBLIC Prizes, announced, handed out by the VIP Judges
Speakers: Dutch + Local MPs explain their Art Works / Ambassador / Judges Chair
3.00 pm BIG DUTCH DAY OUT FINISHED
Saturday 27 April, 2023 – 10.00am to 3.00pm
Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom / De Molen / Te Awahou Riverside Cultural Park
92 Main Street, Foxton
Events 2023
Old Fashioned Fun!
The 'Big Dutch Day Out' - In Foxton
Dutch Week 2023 will take off in arts 'n heritage town Foxton, on Saturday 23 April - for the third year in a row - right next to Windmill De Molen.
As part of the official opening of Dutch Week, the Oranjehof museum will unveil its new Draaiorgel - De Papegaai (street organ The Kea).
Bring the kids or grandchildren, and let them create clog art or klompenkunst, try out Oud-Hollandse Spelen like clog throwing, sack jumping, steltlopen (stilt walking), blikkengooien or rope-skipping. And let the keen little voetballers, shoot a voetbal at a target goal with holes in it. They will get a speculaasje en drop for every goal that's scored!
Big Dutch Day Out
Yummie Foods, Castle Games, Old Odd Dutch Games, Straatorgel Muziek, Art, Klompenkunst voor de Kinders!
We have a Clog Art Competition this time. Kids can turn 200 'Klompen' into Art Pieces - kunstwerken.
De Klompen will be judged, and displayed in our Art Gallery - next to scented artworks from the NLs and NZ.
10.00am Stage Outside
Ambassador + Mayor: OFFICIAL START of Big Dutch Day Out + Dutch Week
Mana Whenua: Mihi / Ambassadeur: toespraak / Mayor speaks
Street Organ ‘De Lieve Stem’ Plays ‘Daar bij die Molen’: sing-along
10.15am Park: Clog Art / Castle Games / 5 Oud-Hollandse Spelen / Voetbal shoot
Street organ De Lieve Stem / Gypsy music / Vrijmarkt + Koekhappen + Face Painting
Kids: ‘Klompengooien’ / ‘Zaklopen’ / ‘Steltlopen’ / ‘Blikkengooien’ / ‘Touwtje Springen’
10.30am Māpuna Kabinet art gallery
Arjan / Yolande: Introduce ‘Rozengeur – Smells like Roses’ art exhibition
Unveiling Draaiorgel - Street Organ: De Papegaai plays ‘Ik hou van Holland’
12.00am Gallery (closed): Judges: Local Artists + MPs
Clogs brought in / Judges create verdict Klompenkunst / Clogs + Art Works
1.00pm Gallery opens: Prize-Givings: De Molen ‘20th Birthday’ art + Shops + Clog Art
Speakers: Molen + VIPs
3.00pm Big Dutch Day Out closes
Saturday 29 April, 2023 – 11.00am to 3.00pm
Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom / Riverside Cultural Park
92 Main Street, Foxton
Events 2022
Good Old Dutch Fun!
And lots of yummie treats...
Foxton's 'Big Dutch Day Out'
Dutch Week 2022 will take off in arts 'n heritage town Foxton, on Saturday 23 April - for the second year in a row.
The official start will be announced by Ambassador Mira Woldberg, as 300 colourful kites - vliegers - take to the air. They will happily fly alongside a giant 7m orange monkey kite in a Dutch Week t-shirt.
The Big Dutch Day Out - organised by windmill De Molen for over 10 years - will feature plenty of old-fashioned fun.
Here's your Programme-BigDutchDayOut-2022 And of course: It's all part of Dutch Week.
Big Dutch Day Out
Sat 23 April from 11am-3pm:
Kites, Foods, Castle Games, Old Odd Dutch Games, Music, Art
- 11.00 am: Big Dutch Day Out - Start:
Ambassador Mira Woldberg / Mana Whenua / Mayor
Giant Kites go up. Kids colour in small kites.
Kick-off 'Oud-Hollandse Spelen' - 11.30 am: Exhibition opening: Ans Westra Photographs: after Handboek
- 12.00 pm: Dutch Week 2022 - Official Start: Ambassador / MPs
'Op de Fiets' + 300 kids vliegers go up - 1.00 pm Prize Giving: De Molen local art competition on Diversity
Prize Giving: National Clog Art Competition 'Klompenkunst'
Saturday 23 April, 2022 – 11.00am to 3.00pm
Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom / Riverside Cultural Park
92 Main Street, Foxton
Our Nation - Through the Lens of an Immigrant
The major arts event on the day is the opening of a classic photography exhibition. The decades-long contribution by Ans Westra to the New Zealand art scene is celebrated in the Māpuna - Kabinet gallery inside Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom.
‘Handboek’ features some 80 black 'n white and colour photographs, from the celebrated 2004 retrospective publication and exhibition of the same name. Organised by Suite Gallery, the art exhibition will be opened by the Hon Marja Lubeck and Ambassador Mira Woldberg.
More info: Media_Release_-_Exhibition_-_Ans_Westra_-_March_2022_V_1-0
Dutch Names who Support our National Cultural Heritage
In 2021, an Art Mural on the outside wall of the Oranjehof museum was revealed, featuring community names who support the Dutch Connection Centre. You can join in!
Find out how: ArtMural-MemorialWall
In 2022 - there will be opportunity, to add some 30 family names, and 2 Major Sponsors to the Art Mural. Click here to add Your Name.
Its striking design incorporates Dutch and Māori colours, as well as Kiwi black. The wave elements point to the local Awa and the river landscape loved by Māori and Dutch alike, in the direction of the Tasman Sea – behind the sand dunes, only a few kilometres away.
In Foxton, the official launch of Dutch Week will be very, very Nederlands. Join in the fun!
Things don't come more double-Dutch than that...!
“Windmill De Molen has successfully organised our annual Big Dutch Day Out for over 10 years now,” says Arjan van der Boon, Co-Chair of the local Oranjehof Dutch Connection museum.
“But this time we want to add a special show, with plenty of kids' activities on the day. The Oranjehof museum is organising a first-ever national clogs art KlompenKunst competition. Klompenkunst-ClogArt-Competition
Plus, we’ll let youngsters from all over the country play in a competition of traditional Old Odd Games: Oud-Hollandse Spelen. It will involve clogs, stiltwalking and jumping around in coffee sacks. With the novelty factor here in Aotearoa – where they’ve probably never done it before – it should be heaps of fun. Perhaps there will even be some adults who want to play the fool, if they can remember how to do it..."
The Oranjehof museum tells the story of the Dutch immigrants in New Zealand – right next to the 30m high icon of Dutchness, the flour-grinding windmill De Molen. A 1880 Perlee street organ will pumping its tunes, and there will be typically Dutch Treats to eat…
"Things don’t get much more Dutch than that," says Arjan.
More info on Dutch_Week_News.
Thanks where 'Thanks' are due
Support for Dutch Week 2022 - across Aotearoa New Zealand and in Foxton - is provided by the Office of Ethnic Communities, local Councils and a raft of ‘Dutch’ individuals, organisations and businesses.
Please note, we've worked out what it all can look like, under the current Covid setting. Rules may change.
Come back to this Dutch Week page, to find out more. New postings, closer to 23 April.
2021: Big Dutch Day Out - Start of ‘Dutch Week’
Dutch culture and language celebrated nationwide
City Icons to Light Up in Orange
Come and join the festivities when the first ever Dutch Week is officially launched - in Foxton - by Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities, together with Ambassador Mira Woldberg.
24 April is Foxton's big Big Dutch Day Out, with lots of festivities and entertainment. Most importantly - a 40 m Art Mural by Amsterdam Artist Jan van der Ploeg will be unveiled. (You can still add your name, next to the Painting)
Things don’t get much more Dutch than this…
Join us and celebrate all things Dutch, like the opening of the brilliantly colourful Leon van den Eijkel retrospective exhibition - 'A Colourful Nation'. Discover all those Dutch immigrant stories in the Oranjehof Dutch Connection Centre. Or take a tour of flour-grinding De Molen, with its blades spinning in the wind.
You can also try some 'ice' skating on an Ice Skating rink. Let the kids join a Kite-making and flying workshop, or play traditional Dutch Games. There will be music pumping from 1880 street organ De Lieve Stem. We will have an accordionist play 'Daar bij die Molen' and other classics. And you can eat yummy food. Lots of great, tasty, wholesome and sweet Dutch foods - like kroketten, uitsmijters, stroopwafels en frikandel!
A festive launch
From Saturday 24 April onwards, Dutch community organisations and party-goers will spread a hue of orange and a celebration of ‘all things Dutch’ across the country – until Sunday 2 May. Dutch Week will be a nationwide fest - and it all starts in Foxton.
To officially start off Dutch Week, the Minister and the Ambassador will jointly reveal the community names who supported our new Art Mural. It has a striking design that incorporates Dutch and Māori colours, as well as Kiwi black. The wave elements point to the local Awa and the river landscape loved by Māori and Dutch alike, in the direction of the Tasman Sea – behind the sand dunes, only a few kilometres away.
Your Name next to Art? Click here - Find out more!
And claim a tax rebate of 33% from the IRD. We're a registered charity.
De Molen was opened is turning 18 this year, and its birthday is perfectly timed to celebrate the nation’s first ever Dutch Week. Out here in Foxton, where the official launch of Dutch Week will be very, very Nederlands!
The Big Dutch Day Out: Saturday 24 April, 2021
Te Awahou Nieuwe Stroom / Te Awahou Riverside Cultural Park
92 Main Street, Foxton. Free event.
For more information on events throughout the country, visit www.DutchNZ.nz