Noorderzon welcomes Rutger Gernandt as new general director
As of April 1, 2025, Noorderzon Festival of Performing Arts & Society in Groningen will have a new general director: Rutger Gernandt. The Supervisory Board has appointed him as the successor to Femke Eerland, who, after 16 years as director and more than 20 years of building Noorderzon, is passing the baton. With this, the festival welcomes an experienced and passionate leader with a broad background in the performing arts, who is eager to take on this new role with energy and enthusiasm.
Rutger Gernandt (1985) was, until recently (2018-2025), the business director of the theater company De Warme Winkel in Amsterdam. In that role, he also founded Theaterbroedplaats De Sloot. Before that, he was, among other things, the business director of Ulrike Quade Company and a musician. He studied drums at the Royal Conservatory and Public Administration at Leiden University. He also holds various board positions, including at the Digital Infrastructure Performing Arts Foundation (DIP).
Rutger Gernandt on his appointment: “Noorderzon is a truly unique festival: both a grand Groningen summer celebration and an internationally renowned performing arts festival, where you can see the stars of tomorrow at work today. Additionally, it features a full-fledged music festival, a children's program, a literature program, and &Society, which connects everything together. If it didn’t already exist, you’d want to invent it. It is therefore a great honor to take on this role.”
Kees van der Helm, Chairman of the Supervisory Board: “As the Supervisory Board, we are pleased to appoint Rutger Gernandt. We are confident that he is an excellent fit for Noorderzon and that he will be able to work towards a sustainable future for the festival. With his knowledge and experience, he is well-equipped to tackle the challenges ahead.”
Artistic Director Mark Yeoman: “I’m delighted that the hugely talented Rutger Gernandt will be joining our festival team. Rutger will bring with him a passion for the arts, a strong sense of leadership, and a dynamic approach not just to our functioning of today but also to our dreaming of possible tomorrows. As the world changes and moves on, we will be moving with it.”
Applause and a deep bow for Femke!
At the start of the summer of 2024, Femke Eerland announced that the upcoming festival would be her last as general director of Noorderzon. After 20 years in a key role, her decision had a profound impact on the organization. For many, Noorderzon without Femke was almost unimaginable. Her incredible energy and dedication, her deep love for the festival and for Groningen, have shaped Noorderzon into what it is today. Her commitment has led to widespread recognition of the festival, as reflected in the highly praised review from the Council for Culture in 2024.The Noorderzon team and all crew members, the Supervisory Board, the people of Groningen, and culture lovers across the Netherlands—we are all deeply grateful to her and will miss her immensely.
Mark Yeoman:“I don’t really have words enough to thank Femke for the amazing working together over the past 24 years. It started innocently enough, in 2001, two not very experienced people forming a new festival direction team for the Noorderzon Festival in Groningen. But we must have done something right, because we soon found ourselves on a many-years adventure developing the Noorderzon into not only one of the power-houses of the European festival scene, but simultaneously into an immense social and cultural event at the heart of the Groningen city year. We did not make this extraordinary journey on our own, but together with many hundreds of colleagues and many thousands of supporters of all kinds. It’s been ‘ a hell of a ride’ for us both.