Deer CaDansians,

Can you believe it? The festival is over! After four days of amazing experiences, the Red Deer is ready for winter. We hope you enjoyed the 13th edition as much as we did, and we hope you slept more than we did 😉

We have quite a bit of news to share, so read on. But we’ll already start with the most important announcement:

CaDansa 2027 will take place from 21/10 until 24/10 in Steenwijk.

We’ll see you all there, right?

Thank you

We already said it on Saturday evening, but it can’t be said enough: a massive thanks to all the volunteers that made the festival as special as it was. You all deserve more than we can give you! And a special shout out to Maartje, whose designs were the basis for all of the CaDansa magic.

And of course, a big thank you to you as well, our lovely visitors. Seeing you enjoy yourselves made it all worthwhile. CaDansa isn’t the bands or the decorations, it’s all of you coming together and creating something truly unique.

And a final thank you goes out to our photographers: Arne de Laat, Johan Wijchen, Ork de Rooij, and Ronald Rietman. They do their best to capture all of the beauty of the festival, and provide us with so many happy memories. You’ll already find some photos on their websites, with more to come later.

Feedback

While we like to think we do a decent job organising the festival, there’s always room for improvement. Please take a little time and fill in our evaluation form. It will help us out immensely in making the next edition even better!

If you were a volunteer, we would also love to hear about those experiences, but please save that for the volunteer evaluation, which will come later.

Lost and Found

You all brought more than just your boundless enthusiasm to CaDansa. And because you were all floating on that festival glow when you left, some things were left behind. Our volunteers gathered all of things together and made pictures of them. Have a look on the website to see whether there’s anything you’re missing, and contact us at lostandfound@cadansa.nl to reclaim them.

Important: any items not claimed by December 1st will be donated to the second-hand store.

The Future of CaDansa

We have to end this message on a slightly bitter note. As you heard on Saturday, Selena and Wouko have decided to make 2027 their last edition as organisers of CaDansa. It’s impossible to describe how much they mean to the festival, and how grateful we are to them for giving so much.

That leaves CaDansa in need of new parents. If you think you could take care of their child, please let us know via info@cadansa.nl by December 1st. We want the story to continue for many years to come, but we need your help!

CaDaily Sunday 2026

CaDaily Saturday 2026

CaDaily Friday 2026

Fifteen years, thirteen mascots and one community

I must have been nineteen, studying graphic design at the art academy, when Vero* from my balfolk dance class asked if I’d design a poster for a top-secret new Dutch balfolk festival she was working on with Louise: CaDansa. I felt so honoured! I had just learned the basics of this digital software called Illustrator, and it took me hours upon hours to draw a tree, an owl and some stars. I got a free ticket and some drink coins for it and I felt over the moon. (Ah, a moon: drew that too)**

Looking back at the posters of each year, I can really see myself grow. The second one was hand-painted in my student dorm at night, because art school left me no daytime: getting the colours right was a nightmare, since I’d painted them in yellow lamplight. Later, you can see the posters becoming more and more detailed. I’ve used a combination of hand drawn elements and digital editing for years (my desk filled with cut out drawings of little tents and canoes and otters and then I had to photoshop them in a somewhat realistic looking landscape: such a hassle!). I went fully digital in 2023, when I started drawing on a tablet. My desk is way less cluttered now. But I do miss the smell of paint.
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