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Maastricht 2022 Meet and Greets.

June 27, 2022. Breaking news! THE ANDRÉ RIEU FAN DAYS ARE BACK! Oila Concept Store and HashtagMaastricht, together with members of the Johann Strauss Orchestra, organize the "Maastricht André Rieu Fan Days” on Saturdays July 9, 16, 23, and 30, 2022! (The time does not interfere with our fanpicnics.) Come to Oila Concept Store in the Sporenstraat 9A in the city-center of Maastricht! Expect Meet 'n Greets and live music by the members of the Johann Strauss Orchestra and its sopranos, but also great get-together from fans for fans, because André Rieu is back in town with his world-famous Vrijthof concerts, so time to celebrate! More surprises coming up! Stay tuned!

To find the Sporenstraat: It is in between the “Grote Staat and “St. Amors plein” 5 on the map is the Dominican Church / Bookstore.

Program of the Meet and Greets: Sat. July 9, at 2 pm: Bling and VerrasSing. Sat. July 16, at 3 pm: Meet the soloists. Sat. July 23, at 4 pm: Pick and Mix Orchestra members. Sat. July 30, at 5 pm: Brass Boys.

Denis Kurris Denis Kurris, owner of Hashtag Maastricht, organized together with Oila Concept Store and members of the Johann Strauss Orchestra, these Fan Meet and Greets. The first one was on Saturday July 9th. Bling by Agnes Fizzano-Walter and VerrasSing by Madieke, Joline and Christine.

Saturday July 9th 2022: First Meet and Greet. “Bling and VerrasSing”.

Saturday July 16th 2022: Second Meet and Greet. “Meet the Soloists”.

Aga’s jewelry and Jet Gelens’ pottery are on sale.

Concept store Oila, Sporenstraat 9 A, Maastricht.

Denis Kurris and Michael Daniels, owners of “Hashtag Maastricht”, organizers of this event together with Oila and JSO members.

Anna Reker, Agnes Fizzano, Micaëla Oeste.

L1, Limburg TV channel was present, to interview the JSO members and the fans.

Micaëla, Bobbie and John de Jong.

Photos made by several fans.

Fan Days André Rieu. Article from the Limburger, 17 July 2022. After two years of absence, not only the traditional Vrijthof concerts by André Rieu are back, but also the fan days. This year they will take place in a concept store on the Sporenstraat in Maastricht. Every week there is a different theme. For example, this week it will be “meet the soloists”, next week it will be the instrumentalists of the orchestra. Entrepreneurs. #Maastricht is one of the organizers that took over the fan days, after the previous organization stopped doing so during the corona years. But why actually? "To offer all fans a platform where they can meet each other, and find everything that has to do with André and to meet their idols. We also want to bring entrepreneurs closer together so that they work better together", says Denis Kurris of # Maastricht. Fans For the fans who come to Maastricht from all over the world, it is an excellent time to be close to their idols. Photos are taken, autographs are handed out and, above all, chatter. Not only with the members of the Johann Strauss Orchestra, but also with each other. Or as a fan from The Hague (Ruud) puts it: "For us 40 percent of the fun is the music and 60 percent is the hassle with the fans around it. You meet fans from all over the world. You go out for dinner with several of them in advance and the concert is the highlight dessert." Rieu himself. André Rieu has not yet shown himself at the fan days. The question is whether that will happen at all. The organization is in good spirits. Petra Smit-Broer: "We assume that he will come. We have still crossed our fingers and are burning candles. But it is impossible to predict whether it will fit into his agenda." -0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- Note by Ruud and Ineke: It is great to meet the orchestra members like this! And we appreciate it very much that the organization has taken into account our annual fan picnic hours on July Saturdays, since 15 years. Thanks for that! We already gave the fans a platform to meet each other since 2005 (first Vrijthof concerts), with fan dinners and fan picnics. The month of July in Maastricht is a gigantic reunion of fans from all across the world and we stay in touch the rest of the year via the Facebook group “André Rieu fans Harmony Parlor” (almost 24.000 members!). We think that meeting André in person is an illusion. He is far too famous, the whole city center would completely be disrupted by crazy fans. In the meantime we love to watch his gigantic productions. We are totally impressed to see how André (and his team), after almost 3 years of a worldwide corona lock down, puts on this amazing show, as if nothing ever happened. And we love to meet the orchestra members!! So thank you Petra of Oila concept store.

Anna Reker.

Jet Gelens.

Saturday July 23rd 2022: Third Meet and Greet. “Strings and Harp”.

Mariella Beurskens

Vera Kool (harp), Nadejda Diakoff (viola), Karin Hinze (cello), Laurianne Thyssebaert (violin).

Not easy to transport the harp.

Saturday July 30, 2022: Fourth Meet and Greet. “The Brass Boys”.

The final Meet and Greet session organised by #Maastricht featured "The Brass Boys". Quite a crowd had gathered at Oila by 5 o'clock when it was due to start, and it was a very warm afternoon, but there was a problem! One of the boys was stuck amongst the tractors of the farmers' protest and the other two needed him to play. So while we all waited Leon van Wijk and Dennis Close chatted with fans, along with Noël Perdaens who was there as their supporter! Eventually Lars Wachelder arrived, and after finding three volunteers to act as human music stands, the trio played a couple of short pieces before having more photos taken with fans. In no time it was time for them to leave to prepare for the 14th concert of the series, leaving a lot of happy faces behind them. As with the previous three Meet and Greets other members of the JSO came in support of their colleagues, showing yet again how much of a family they all are. Christina Petrou Agnes Fizzano and Dorona Alberti were there! Thank you Julia McCarthy-Fox for your report, since Ruud and Ineke had gone home already. Photos by Julia, Lidia Surowka and Hanne Jäger.

Vera Kool

Karin Hinze

Agnes and Justinas

Gary

Christina