Explore the North 2025

Preliminary Programme
Édouard Louis / Joost Oomen, De Poezieboys & Explore the North – GEESTEN
Pitou, LUWTEN & Naaz / aja monet / Saartje van Camp / De Toegift
Company Marte Boneschansker / Mensen Zeggen Dingen
Ugly / Mary Lattimore / RÓIS / NAH / Wild Classical Music Ensemble
Sorvina / ZEA, Hallelujah Makkum & Tsead Bruinja – In Lichem fol Beloften
Nicole van den Berg / Vieze Meisje / Drie Dagen Fris / Funny Bergman
It Deel IV / Kern Koppen – KAMIKAZE COPILOOT / Sheebaba
M. Alberto / Elvis de Launay – Zee, Tuin, Jarman / Danielle Zawadi / Immen
URLAND / De Verwonderkamer / Johannes Lievens / Jonas Ringtved

View the full programme here

Explore the North Festival 2025 – Packing Hope into Your Survival Kit

For three days, we invite you to celebrate stories in all their forms.
Artists will join you in exploring where beauty and love can still be found in a growling world. Sing, dance, and sweat with us as we bring hope back to life.

Rediscover your spark with writers and theatre makers who wake you gently with Sinéad O’Connor, Spicer’s little green men, and the comforting thought that everyone matters — even if it’s just to keep your monstera alive. Audio storytellers will show you how a chance encounter at a bus stop can change your life. And if that’s still not enough, musicians will move you with pounding beats, two-string basses, harps, soundscapes, spoken word and more. And when all hope seems lost, there are always the poets. And you, of course.

Like a firefly, you’ll wander through the city centre of Leeuwarden — from churches to cellars to a former prison. Hope is everywhere, if only you go looking for it.

We’ll send you home with a spark of hope. Chew on it, keep it in the fridge, or plant it in your garden — and see what happens.