Close Up: Reclaim Fest
- Date
- 3 July 2025
- Time
- 19:00 -21:00
- Location
- BG 3
- Room
- VOX-POP
The programme
At the main stage, DJ Alexander Messiah sets the tone with music throughout the evening. You are welcome to dance, talk, and enjoy a drink while spending time in the exhibition space of Who Owns the City? On view for its final day, the exhibition invites reflection on power, visibility, and the ways in which we shape our urban life.
Upstairs, you can watch Queer Grounds: still here, still queer, a documentary made by Close-up member JuJu. The film looks at the legacy of Café Lellebel and how queer communities create and maintain space in changing cities. It considers themes of presence, belonging, and how bodies in space can carry political meaning.
Outside, artist Hero de Janeiro will lead a street art workshop running throughout the evening. Participants are invited to explore how street art can serve as a tool for both resistance and self-expression. No prior experience is necessary.
Want to share your voice? Step up to the open mic stage! Whether you write poetry, sing, perform, or create kleinkunst, everyone is welcome to participate. Sign up in advance or on the spot.
Need a break? Visit our cozy lounge corner to relax, recharge, and take it all in at your own pace.
Practical info
Doors are open at 19:00. Entrance is free but we kindly ask you to reserve your spot through the sign-up form.
Location: VOX-POP, Binnengasthuisstraat 9, 1012 ZA Amsterdam.
This evening marks the finissage of Who Owns the City?, an exhibition exploring power, memory, and movement in urban life. Hosted by the Close Up Team, a collective of students who organize evenings at VOX-POP to dive into social issues through art, debate and performance.
Alexander Messiah, from the Computer Show collective, brings forgotten classics and worn-out newcomers without ego.
Hero de Janeiro is an Amsterdam-based street artist and DJ whose playful, fashion-forward work pops up across the city. Known for characters like Jip & Janneke and Karl Lagerfeld with boomboxes, Hero brings art by day and beats by night, making him a true Street Art Hero
This pilot episode of Queer Grounds explores the layered history and present-day reality of Café Lellebel, one of Amsterdam’s few remaining explicitly queer bars. Through community testimony, archival material, and expert commentary from a historian of Dutch queer nightlife, the film uncovers how spaces like Lellebel offer more than entertainment; they act as refuges, affirmations, and sites of resistance. Framed against the backdrop of Amsterdam’s capital-driven urban development and waning inclusivity, the episode raises urgent questions about who gets to feel safe, visible, and at home in the city.
