About us
Explore the North is a production house and festival with its own headquarters in Leeuwarden: Podium Explore. Read about our history and development below.
Explore the North began in 2011 as a small festival focused on music and literature, showcasing the lovely Leeuwarden city center. The festival then took place in 2013 and 2014 under the wing of Popfabryk. When it seemed like Leeuwarden would become the European Cultural Capital City in 2018, the festival started up again in 2016, and Explore the North was formally revamped as a foundation.Things changed course: there came a bigger focus on our own area. From within the massive multilingualism project, Lân fan taal, we answered the call from Leeuwarden Cultural Capital and developed a year-round program with newly-made work at the helm. That was the start of Explore the North as an interdisciplinary production house focused on literature and multilingualism.
We rapidly developed our entire production house infrastructure, with projects touring the whole country. By 2024, we have become a production house, festival, and podium all in one. We acquired the old Westerkerk and christened it in our own name. You can now witness a year-round program in various parts of the beautiful, old Westerkerk under the name of Podium Explore. Besides that, various courses, workshops, and residencies take place here, and our cafe is open every friday for you.
Together with a number of creatives in our production house, we are able to showcase a year-long program. We are able to host a diverse set of interdisciplinary projects, always involving language, multi-lingualism, and literature. We also offer various tailored Talent Development programs for creatives in various stages of their career.
November is our festival month: with the free-entry Stadskas as its heart, the arts festival for young makers in the North De Broeikas, and a three-day festival with a program of international pioneers next to young, local word artists on stage.
“…The small, brave club of people behind Explore the North. They also understand the worth of culture, have a good (international) network, and dare to take risks with their programming instead of meekly re-showcasing the already-well-known. We really need this perspective in the coming years.” –
Leeuwarder Courant