Kees Driesprong

Let me introduce myself: my name is Kees Driesprong.

In 2003, I was, together with Cor Roodsant (then chairman of Barend Fox) and Hans van der Sluijs, co-founder of the Stichting Shantyfestival Rotterdam. At that time, I was chairman of the co-founding choir Shantykoor Rotterdam.

Now in 2024 I have again become a co-board member of the Stichting Shantyfestival Rotterdam. I am also currently chairman of ShantyNederland and we represent +/- 350 shanty choirs with 12,000 singers and we look after their interests within the entire choir sector in the Netherlands.

After a years-long procedure, we (ShantyNederland) have achieved that shanty singing has been added in 2018 to the Intangible Cultural Heritage List of the Netherlands as initiated by UNESCO.

As chairman of ShantyNederland I can say the following: The more festivals there are, the more accessible and well-known shanty singing will become to a wider audience.

This will certainly contribute to our heritage care plan that shanty singing will continue to appeal to new generations and will therefore continue to exist.

The board of ShantyNederland has a warm heart for the Shantyfestival Rotterdam Foundation and highly recommends it for the following reasons:

• A broad international audience is coming
• People of immigrants descent come from Rotterdam
• Activities are organized for children
• There is a youth shanty choir present
• On average, more than 30 choirs come to Rotterdam
• ShantyNederland gave several workshops during the festival to achieve innovation, rejuvenation and quality improvements.

All in all, we at ShantyNederland and I, now also as a co-board member of the Shantyfestival Rotterdam Foundation, hope that this festival can continue and that its organization can continue to count on financial support from cultural funds.

[Bio and image from Stichting Shantyfestival Rotterdam website.]