New Island Festival... 400 Hundred Years of Dutch in NYC

Oh, the beautiful autumn... but, I'm still savoring memories from this past summer, and since I haven't posted here in a while, I'm going to go back a few weeks and post a few pictures from the Dutch festival on Governors Island.

This is the 400th years of Hudson sailing up the ..Hudson River. Henry Hudson was an Englishman but worked for the Dutch, who had a vibrant mini colony here in New York (New Amsterdam). We still have many places with Dutch names around. Anyway, it was fun to see so many Hollanders on a tiny island for two weekends in early September.

That was an interesting 40 minutes of raising this structure...
All free events..


Lots of music as you can see...
They were advertising the various shows...
Candy girls.... (somehow I caught them drinking beer!)
Governor's Island has many old buildings, most in really bad shape (to be demolished soon), but some under renovation. GI served as a military outpost, prison (Civil War), hospital, Army barracks, Coast Guard headquarters, and even hosted presidents R. Reagan and M. Gorbachev.

Modern dance...

Some of the art was way out there...

I became an instant fan of Ellen Ten Damme.... One of the most fun, crazy, energetic, multi-talented performer I've seen in a long time. Apparently she's well-known in Holland.

The biggest table where traditional Dutch food was served...

A Dutch farmer with an American cow--because his own cow didn't have the proper immigration papers!
Divera with her guitar Vanilla in Cafe Me...