Liberation Festival

05-05-2025 | 10:00 - 17:00 | Events

On 5 May, we celebrate 80 years of Freedom nationwide. As every year, a festive Liberation Festival will take place at the Freedom Museum, with a special ceremony this year.   

Especially during this edition, the Freedom Ride ceremony will take place at 12:30. The Freedom Ride is a liberation festival on bicycle. Participants can choose from several routes along historical sites. The ceremony, with several speakers and a wreath laying, offers an impressive moment to reflect on freedom, which certainly cannot be taken for granted. Special to experience for non-cyclists too.   

Furthermore, it promises to be a festive day. There will be ongoing activities such as special Highlight Tours for adults and children, live music (including by William Smulders), military vehicle tours by Grateful Generation, book sales, presentations on dogs with jobs and spy training for children.   

At 13:30, upon registration, you can join the Freedom Lunch. In cooperation with Gelderland-South Library, a delicious freedom soup will be cooked and participants can talk to each other about what freedom means to them.  

At 15:45, the Freedom Fire will arrive at the Freedom Museum. Runners collected the fire in Wageningen and bring it to Groesbeek via Nijmegen. Erik Weijers, alderman Berg en Dal, and Esther Horsten, director of the Freedom Museum, receive the fire and pass it on to a new runners who will take it to Kleve and Heumen.   

The festival is also the opportunity to admire the new temporary exhibition, namely “Indigenous Liberators”. A special exhibition full of stories of native American and Canadian soldiers who fought along during the liberation of the Netherlands.   

Also special: next to the museum, landscape art consisting of 336 panels painted by different artists will develop in the coming months: The Colorfield Performance. From the beginning of May, panels will be painted daily, gradually growing this landscape art. Come see and be inspired.   

The festival is on Sunday 5 May from 10:00-17:00 at the Freedom Museum. Admission costs €12.50 per person, €7.50 for children. A family ticket costs €35 (two adults with two children). Programme changes are subject to change.  

Main image: Henk Baron