The land of the Fabulas in Antwerp!
A new old story was born…. In Antwerp, our first port of call, on the Houtdok Zuidkaai….I met….real pirates.
"A magical gathering of fabulistic animals and fireflamers in an old Antwerp port district, a deserted industrial location where the ships coming from the sea sail into the city. In between the oil tankers and the fishing vessels, the fable is still alive!
An actual celebration of the state of things in the land of troubadours, real pirates, seargues, survivors, squatters, fighters for freedom and imagination!
A long table with food, music, miraculous stories and encounters. We share our learnings, tell each other our stories and sing about our travels. Anyone qho guards over the flame of the land of the fables and keeps it burning is welcome to join in!"
And so it was.....
This was the invitation for the Night of the Fables. Jan made it with so much care and love. Jan is a wonderful artist (http://art-block.blogspot.com/2008/09/jan-rymenants.html) whom I got to know some years ago. When he came to visit me on the boat just before my departure we fantasized together about a possible visit to Antwerp as my first port of call. Et voila, the idea caught fire and magic started to happen. He traced all the fableanimals and fireflamers, pirates and searogues of Antwerp and found 't Eilandje and the magic ship of Donia Gert where the land of the Fabulas would get shape during full moon on the 15th of July. Thanks to Jan, my dear fablefriend, a magic night was bound to be born and the following miraculous story was about to unfold.
...Miraculous it was….
The whole week it had been raining and the skies had been grey and on
the morning of the festival I woke up and the sky was blue and it was
hot…. that evening I hoisted my sails and slowly people found the
island…I had been collecting stories all week and I had met so many
different people. Old sailors, Jef the diamondseeker, Mister Merlin, priest
Theo of the cafe without beer, searogue david with his little son miro,
peter the magic painter and the dockworkers of petras cafe…Don Fabulist
the master storyteller from the forest …and they all
came to the festival…a markant collection of people from all different
corners and on the night itself to great storytellers came from
far…first Don Fabulist who is a magnificent storyteller who lives in the
forest on the French border and Peter Holvoet, the citypoet of
Antwerp…. when the night fell and everybody had a full stomach and the
excitement grew I climbed up the mast of my little Rana and hoisted the
flame of the land of the fabulas and the flag of new atlantis, which I
got from my Illusionist teachers of the Illuseum in Amsterdam…the full
moon above me….and the night was opened…stories and music filled the air
and we got all drunk on ancient fabulas and rhum….
"A magical gathering of fabulistic animals and fireflamers in an old Antwerp port district, a deserted industrial location where the ships coming from the sea sail into the city. In between the oil tankers and the fishing vessels, the fable is still alive!
An actual celebration of the state of things in the land of troubadours, real pirates, seargues, survivors, squatters, fighters for freedom and imagination!
A long table with food, music, miraculous stories and encounters. We share our learnings, tell each other our stories and sing about our travels. Anyone qho guards over the flame of the land of the fables and keeps it burning is welcome to join in!"
And so it was.....
This was the invitation for the Night of the Fables. Jan made it with so much care and love. Jan is a wonderful artist (http://art-block.blogspot.com/2008/09/jan-rymenants.html) whom I got to know some years ago. When he came to visit me on the boat just before my departure we fantasized together about a possible visit to Antwerp as my first port of call. Et voila, the idea caught fire and magic started to happen. He traced all the fableanimals and fireflamers, pirates and searogues of Antwerp and found 't Eilandje and the magic ship of Donia Gert where the land of the Fabulas would get shape during full moon on the 15th of July. Thanks to Jan, my dear fablefriend, a magic night was bound to be born and the following miraculous story was about to unfold. 
 |
| Land of the Fabulas |
