At Festival Tweetakt, it is not only the audience that comes together, but also the professional field, from the Netherlands and abroad. Each year, a dedicated day for professionals takes place, centred around an urgent and relevant theme. You can attend the full programme or choose to join for half a day. For this day, we use a pay what you can principle.

This year, we are organising a day focused on artistic freedom. Within the field of youth theatre, this freedom appears to be increasingly restricted; pupils, but also parents and teachers, seem ever more sensitive to themes addressed in art, such as identity, sexuality and societal issues.

During this day, we create space to explore together how artists can retain their autonomy, how to engage with audiences, and how policy and practice can strengthen rather than restrict one another.

At the beginning of 2026, the advice report Maken (z)onder druk (Creating Without/Under Pressure) by the Dutch Council for Culture was published on this topic. With this professionals’ day, Festival Tweetakt offers a platform to delve deeper into these issues. Using overarching themes such as fighting for equality, creating change, and safeguarding the societal position of art, we will address questions such as:

• Where does the increase in this issue come from?
• How do we deal with polarising topics such as geopolitical tensions, queerness and sexuality?
• How do we protect the freedom of young audiences to look beyond their own frames of reference?
• What role do the requirements of funders play?
• What influence does social media have?
• How does the political left–right spectrum come into play?

The day brings together experience‑based experts from different sides: artists, education professionals and policy‑makers.

Morning programme: contributions by Steven Pont, Jan Jaap Knol, Hedy d’Ancona, Gina Beuk, Sacha Muller, Pim Lammers, Daniël van Klaveren, Jip Vuik, Robbert van Heuven, Dennis Stam, Moniek Merkx, Marijn Cornelis, and others.

Afternoon programme: contributions by Liv Laveyne, Jetse Batelaan, Willemijn Zevenhuijzen, Harun Balci, Jerry Afriyie, Tim Schouten, and others.

The day will be moderated by Karim Amghar.

Afterwards, it is possible to attend Family by Louis Janssens at Theater Kikker. Tickets can be booked via this link.

Programme subject to change.