Harbour Festival Heemstede. Wednesday 24 June 2026

Two rotary clubs organised a festival at the harbour of Heemstede paid for by sponsors while all proceeds will go to a good cause, poor children in Haarlem. For my own band Sweetwood, it was a new experience to see our band name on billboards and flyers all over Heemstede. For an amateur band to be on the same bill as (semi-)professional artists is quite something.

The day was extremely warm. In fact it was hot and I felt truly sorry for the people who have been working all day to put everything up and to take it down again late in the evening. It also showed that the location at the harbour of Heemstede lends itself really well for activities like this. People come in by bike or on foot and the more fortunate people sail in with their sloop and watch the festivities from the water.

The festival opened with Haarlem based singer-songwriter Yorick van Norden. Van Norden is fairly well known at national level, as he can be heard on the radio and seen on tv. Besides that, he is also seen as an expert on The Beatles' music. I've seen him perform in the open air theater Caprera in Bloemendaal where he also introduced the film 'The Last Waltz' that was played on a big screen on nice spring evening. He started his show with a very appropriate song, 'Here Comes The Sun'. And did that sun come! I was already soaking wet from just setting everything up and soundchecking. Alternating between his own songs and another cover, David Bowie's 'Space Oddity', Van Norden played a short but very pleasant set. Accompanying himself on a beautiful acoustic guitar, he made a great impression for far too little people paying attention.

The third act was Amsterdam "volkszanger" Danilo Kuiters. His kind of music, is totally not mine. Perhaps because of that, I had never heard his name before. To my surprise there were a lot of people who could sing along to his songs and having a great time. That was deserved, because the music in a setting like this can put a smile on faces, including mine. Most "volkszangers" performed with a tape in the old days and today perform with a usb stick containing the music and sing live over it. Unfortunately this went wrong somewhere, because at some point the electricity failed and kept failing every time things were reset, so Kuiters could not finish his intended set.

The headliner was the Hermes House Band. This band started 45 years ago and has had over 140 members through the years. The members are all from the Rotterdam student fraternity Hermes, its house band. So, the version we saw were students with an average age of what, 21, 22 years?, including three singers and two horns. If I heard correctly, the bassist played his second show and the keyboard player his last. These youngsters are all so good, at an age that I did not even think I would ever play in a band, in fact, did not play an instrument. They were joined by a veteran member for a few songs, who still knew all the moves, suggesting the choreography does not change either. The repertoire is most likely what that first versions of the band must have played, all disco songs from the 70s and 80s. Almost all played in a somewhat faster version than the original. The audience, average age at a minimum 50, danced like they used to, despite the heat. I think there was only one song I could not sing along with and there was a Bruno Mars and an Avici song from 10s. The band's claim to fame, was its version of the Gloria Gaynor's 1979 (and 1988) hitsingle 'I Will Survive'. The band scored a huge hit in 1994 with 'I Will Survive (La La La)' by taking one of the horn lines in the background of the original and turned it into a prominent vocal line. It accompanies each goal football club Feyenoord scores at a home match. Of course they kept it for last. Before it, one hit song after the other, in the form of full songs, shorter renditions and medleys, was fired at the audience, with an enthusiasm and energy that was incredible and certainly under these extreme circumstances. If you want to build a huge party, this is your band.

And Sweetwood? I can only write about ourselves that we were very happy with our set. We proved that we can handle a podium like this. Our repertoire is very diverse and except for our slow blues songs, we played some of all else. The audience responded, sang along, clapped to the rhythm when invited. What more can you ask for as a cover band. So, if you are looking for party but slightly more modest than the Hermes House Band provides, come to us.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght