Fan Picnics

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Fan Picnics in Maastricht Every Concert-Saturday from 12 - 2 PM. Stadspark. City Park.

Throughout the years the tradition of a fan gathering in the Maastricht Stadspark (City park) remains. In 2025 the fan picnics will take place on Saturdays: July 5, 12, 19, between 12 and 2 pm. Please bring your lunch, drinks and something to sit on (blanket, chair, etc). Each year we welcome many fans from all continents, every Saturday afternoon, during the July concert weeks by André Rieu. Opposite the bastion “Five Heads”.

For the fan picnic we recommend wearing a name tag with your name and country. There is no registration, just come to the park and meet a lot of fan friends. In case of inclement weather, we'll cancel. But we are not afraid of a little drizzle, we are Dutch. Umbrellas allowed. And you know the Limburg custom…. We'll bring a sausage to Saint Clara, or place a call to Saint Peter, to ask for nice weather!

During the picnics you may find Sonja Harper (USA), creator of the website www.andrerieutranslations.com; John de Jong (USA), one of the managers of the www.harmonyparlor.blogspot.com. Ineke and Ruud Elshout - Cornelissen from the Netherlands, hosts of the www.andrerieumovies.com web site and organizers of the fan dinner and picnics. We look forward to meet you all!!

Map of Maastricht; location of Fan Picnic is at the bottom right. Maps of the Maastricht city center are on sale at the Tourist Office.

In 2015/16/17 we set up a new record with about 100 fans who attended the fan picnic!! Photo by our Canadian cameraman: Al Girard.

And in 2016 we had another 100 attendants! Photo also by Al Girard.

Fan Picnic 2010, a video impression by Richard Oswick

A fun video made by Alice Leung in 2009.

The fan picnic place is located in the City Park, near the pond with the fountain and the historic city wall (from the 15th century) with the bastion (the round part) “The five heads”. During the night of March 24, 2019 the ancient wall suddenly collapsed (photo to the left) and some of the stones fell into the pond. In July 2019, when our usual Saturday fan gathering took place, the wall was propped up (photo to the right).

In March 2019 the ancient city wall suddenly collapsed. In May 2021 Ruud and Ineke visited Maastricht and checked on how the wall was doing. It looked awful. During the fan picnic in 2022 it still looked awful. Even the round part showed a danger of collapsing and was propped. We heard rumors that the city council plans to rebuild the entire wall. The construction works give a lot of problems. Read the latest information by the city board of Sept. 2023, click HERE. We wonder what we’ll see in July 2024!!

Update: since 2023 there is a new kiosk in the city park, not far from our fan picnic area. The lady sells sandwiches, drinks and ice cream there. So you don’t even need to bring your lunch, you could buy it there.

2024: Unfortunately, we have to conclude that the number of fans who are willing to come to the fan picnics is decreasing every year. (This also applies to the registration for the fan dinners). There are various reasons for this, but it is a fact. We see the future changing. AR Travel is developing further and further by offering fun activities for the fans and perhaps it is time for us to make way. That is not a problem, we are also getting older..... We’ll see what the future will bring. We’ll let you know. Que sera, sera.

Once we had a record of 100 fans in the years 2015/16/17. The lowest point was in 2024, click HERE.

So, probably, one day in the future we have to stop!