Theaterfestival Boulevard in ’s-Hertogenbosch looks back on an inspiring 41st edition. The eleven-day performing arts festival welcomed around 107,500 visitors, including 54,500 who attended performances (37,000 tickets sold and 17,500 at the free program), with a noticeable increase in younger audiences.

Motto
The festival’s motto, “in community of wonder”, resonated throughout the program. For Boulevard, curiosity remains the best remedy against hardening and polarization. The festival saw this reflected in the strong sense of community – on the square, in venues and tents, in festival buses – and in the diversity of its audience.

Highlights
Boulevard 2025 presented around 125 different performances, concerts, and installations at the intersection of theatre, dance, music, and visual arts, including 16 premieres. Major crowd-pullers included large-scale productions by the Flemish companies Berlin/NTGent (Living Apartment Together), KOPERGIETERY/vzw Forevergem (Foreverandevergem), Circumstances/Piet van Dycke (BEYOND), and – from Brabant – Het Zuidelijk Toneel (Not Quichot). Other notable performances came from Louis Janssens (Family), Miet Warlop (Inhale Delirium Exhale), Cheroney Pelupessy (Mama’ku), and Joseph Toonga/Alexsander “Mumu” Afonso Costa/Leonardo Laureano Ciriaco & Peterson Napoleão (The Black Body Festival: Joy isn’t always Joy). The extensive student program Future Feels/Club Felix also drew large audiences.

Mix of disciplines and audiences
In Tent Paars, a wide range of disciplines was showcased: from rap to dance theatre, from battles to improv, as well as football and comedy. The audience included both new – often young – visitors and loyal curious festivalgoers. The programming of this stage, designed by Amsterdam-based spatial designer Eddy van der Laan, was developed in collaboration with dance maker Arjuna Vermeulen of the ’s-Hertogenbosch hip-hop crew Cypher HQ.

IK MAAK MEE
A premiere this year was the family square IK MAAK MEE, a meeting and activity space for children. Especially the Sprokkelroute, daily workshops, and the special kids’ menu at Restaurant LOF attracted many young visitors and their parents or guardians.

Locations
Since 1985, Boulevard has taken place at 238 different locations in and around ’s-Hertogenbosch. In 2025, the list expanded with five new venues: the Hoge Slagen apartment complex, Antoniegaarde care home, the garden of Sint Janscentrum (seminary), a garden in Berlicum, and the parking lot of De Gruyterfabriek.

Accessibility
Culture should never be a privilege for some and a loss for others. From that conviction, Boulevard once again focused strongly on accessibility in this edition. In collaboration with advocacy organizations, it created opportunities and encounters: from four-hand interpreters for deafblind visitors, Meet & Feel sessions that make a performance tangible, and the Sign Language Café at Hertog Jan La Tramontana bar, to free programs for newcomers, and more than 450 Geef een Toegift tickets for people with limited financial means.

Next year, the 42nd edition of Theaterfestival Boulevard will take place from Thursday 6 to Sunday 16 August 2026.