After nine years of transformative leadership, Mikey Martins, the CEO and Artistic Director of Freedom Festival Arts Trust, is set to embark on a new chapter as the Festival Director of the prestigious Oerol Festival on the island of Terschelling in the north of The Netherlands.

Mikey said, ‘It is a great honor to take on the position of Festival Director and continue the extraordinary legacy and impact of Oerol Festival, building on the fantastic work that Joop Mulder began in 1982 and to which so many dedicated people have contributed over the past 42 years. I look forward to working with the talented team that year after year gets the impossible done in the villages and natural landscapes of the beautiful island of Terschelling.’

Jerry Straub, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Oerol Festival, expressed his enthusiasm for Martins’ arrival: ‘We are very pleased with the arrival of Mikey Martins. What he did at Freedom Festival in Hull, for example, with 90,000 visitors, is downright impressive. Mikey is someone with vision, ideas and guts. He has an excellent radar for the connection between art and culture, polyphony and social issues and above all for and with people. With his personality and leadership the DNA, the mission of Oerol and of course the beautiful home base Terschelling with its impressive nature and hospitality will gain even more strength, depth and meaning in all respects. ‘An Englishman on Terschelling.’

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