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We have been looking forward sň
long and so much to this weekend and finally, there it
was, Friday July 8th !!
I went up to Maastricht with my husband Ron. The
weather wasn't that beautiful, cloudy and rain-showers
on our way to André's
hometown, but when we had a coffee break after 1.5
hours, it cleared up a little. During our break we met
Thea Buys and we were all in a good mood. After
our arrival in Maastricht, we met Sonja Harper
and her Mom. We stayed all together in a nice boarding
house and we couldn't wait to go to the Vrijthof. We
arrived just in time, André
was busy with the sound check and we met some of the
orchestra-members and also
Pierre. What a hard worker he is,
André must be very
proud of him. Suddenly André
rode in our direction on a bike to check if the sound
was okay and we made pictures right away!!!
On our way to the Grand Café "d'n Ingel" we met several
fans and the atmosphere was already great. Finally I met
my dear friends from Boston, Cathy and Annette;
it was so great to see them in Maastricht. We also met
Sigrun from Germany, Gemma and her husband
from Belgium and Ineke and Ruud from
Holland. Of course we met more people who also would
join the fan-dinner and so .... up we went to the second
floor of the restaurant with 24 fans. Due to the high
trees in front of the restaurant, we couldn't see much,
but there was a big video-screen right in front of us
and also on the wall of the room. Before we started the
dinner, I hold a speech in Dutch and English for all the
fans with a tribute to Ineke, who made this all
possible !!!
During our dinner we enjoyed the first concert of
André and guess what
??? No rain, while it was pretty cloudy. I think
Petrus is a good friend of
André, because there was NO drop of rain !!!!
The sight over the Vrijthof was magnificent, everything
(old buildings, restaurants and churches) was
illuminated in different colours, and it was like a
fairytale. The windows stood open and it just felt as if
we were on the Vrijthof, too. We have been waving in
front of the windows, holding banners of Ineke and
everyone was in a good mood. A part of the fans went
down to join the concert, the rest stayed inside. It was
a wonderful concert with much surprises and we waved,
sang along and danced, great !!! There was also a woman
inside the room who has filmed us. She was a part of the
film crew of André,
what on honour, huh ??
We saw
many people on the terraces, singing,
having fun and
people were waltzing on the streets.
When Suzan
was singing "Memory" I went down to the first floor. I
was there all on my own, sat in front of the open window
and I enjoyed this beautiful song with my eyes closed.
What a moment this was, it was kind of chilly, but
Suzan's voice made
me feel warm all over. When I got back to the second
floor "Funiculi Funicula" was playing and everyone was
waving hands and singing. Wow, what an atmosphere that
was.
To our surprise Benny Neyman, he's a famous
singer from Maastricht, sang the Maastrichter folksong
together with André
and he changed some texts dedicating to him. We couldn't
get enough of it and to see those famous Maastrichter
artists together gave us a warm feeling. The first
concert was a huge success and we still had one to go
... (some of the fan-friends even more).
Saturday night we were on the Vrijthof to sit between
the audience and how beautiful that was !!! Petrus has
been watching over André
again, because it was dry and a nice temperature. My
husband made a lot of pictures as you can see and I was
glad he did, so that I could enjoy the concert more
without holding the camera.
When André
started to play the extra songs, we rushed to the stage
with our banner. Many people were already standing there
and we had to find a place, so that we could unroll the
banner. André
recognized us and smiled at us. The banner said "The
A(n)drénalin is rising, xxxjes (kisses) from The Angels".
Because we had dinner the night before in restaurant
"d'n Ingel" (translated The Angels) we were supposed
to be The Angels, funny huh ??
I was amazed to see the new beautiful dresses of the
orchestra-ladies, the Roman costumes and the unfolded
dresses of Carmen, Carla and
Susan showing us the city flag of Maastricht.
We all got small lights to wave with and it was great to
see all those lights high in the dark sky ... it was a
very memorable night I will never forget and it was
SUPER to be together with so many fan-friends.
Right after the concert we met
Carmen and we had a nice chat with her. She's
a very nice girl and she told us that she is leaving the
JSO as will Carla.
That's a shame, we will really miss them, but they are
both young and want to start something new in their
lives.
We haven't joined the fan-picnic, because we (me,
Ron and
Thea) wanted to go
sightseeing with my friends
Cathy and Annette.
Finally they could see the St. Pieters church,
André's castle,
house and studio. The weather was great and we had a
beautiful view over Maastricht and The Maas.
André is so lucky to
live in the oldest town of Holland and Maastricht is
proud to have such a famous artist living there !!!
Unfortunately we had to go back home on Sunday, so we
missed the afternoon- and night concerts. Though we felt
very happy and satisfied after this GREAT weekend. The
music is still in my head and I can't wait for the new
CD and DVD.
André ... what a
great person you are, making so many people, young and
old, so happy !!! You enlighten the world with your
beautiful music and you have your heart in the right
place. If you ever will give another Vrijthof-concert
again, you can be sure I will be there again !!!!
Thanks to Thea, Ineke, Sonja, her Mom, Cathy,
Annette, Janny, Gemma, Sigrun, John, Bobbie, Henny
and all the others I have met who made this weekend even
more beautiful !!!
Love,
Monique
XOXOXO
More Pages from Monique
Maastricht
fan dinner & picnic |