A late look-back on the Sweet Summer Tour

In September, DWARS Brabant-Zeeland travelled all over Brabant. We were at various intra-markets and festivals to represent our leftist, progressive and green ideals, and to recruit new members! It has been a while since then, but now that the days are getting shorter, the nights longer and the warm sunshine has been replaced by chilly rain, we thought it would be a good time to look back at the summer!

Tilburg

Last week, we had a busy day at the Tilburg TOPweek fair! We had a stall with both DWARS information and a banner with the petition against GroenLinks Tilburg's long-study fine. As an activity, we challenged students to match politicians with their favourite song (so far, no one has got all the answers right!). Besides the conversations about DWARS and Dutch politics, it was also fun to see the surprised faces of people who found out what politicians' favourite songs were, or of international students learning about this tradition for the first time.

All in all, the Tilburg summer tour was a success! We gained a new member and people showed their interest in DWARS!

- Aitana

Eindhoven

In Eindhoven too, we were at a stall at the info market! With our favourite politicians-music game, postcards, stickers, game cards and condoms, we had decorated our stall. Many students - both Dutch and foreign - came to see. This often started with them asking what DWARS was in the first place. Although some dropped out as soon as we mentioned the word “politics” or “left”, there were also many students who were very interested!

What was striking was that we, together with Volt, were the only political parties/youth organisations present. Of course we didn't mind, the more leftist and progressive the better! At the Volt stall they even had a special guest, Laurens Dassen himself! Well, of course I had to go and have a chat with him and score a snapshot. It was a very nice day and hopefully Eindhoven is a bit greener now!

-Imme

Den Bosch

Last month we had the last two dates of our summer tour, and how much we enjoyed it! On 5 September, we were at the Introfestival in Den Bosch, where the high temperature (30°C!) got us totally into the summer mood. Apart from having many good conversations here about politics and the importance of young people in the political system, we also danced and laughed a lot with the other Political Youth Organisations present at the festival! And as a highlight, there was also the chairmen's karaoke session!

By the end of the day, we had lost all the merchandise we brought along, so I think we can look back on a successful festival and Den Bosch is now a bit greener again!

-Vera

Breda

In contrast to the tropical temperatures in Den Bosch, there was a good chance that the Intro Festival in Breda would fall into the water. Worstenbrooike therefore came to match the impending code orange in his new outfit, the football jersey of his Breda football hero Virgil! I think it is safe to say that Worstenbrooike was our biggest attention-getter because of this. The rain was not too bad in the end, which meant that Worstenbrooike and Bart could still fully enjoy Yes-R's performance.

And then it was really over! We had a wonderful summer tour and are happy that we were able to get so many prospective students excited about DWARS and politics! Thanks to everyone for your efforts and for the great atmosphere!

-Vera