Border Region in Wartime

...Finally
Free!

A performance featuring personal stories, film projections on large screens, re-enactments, special effects, music, and singing. This open-air, location-based show will captivate everyone.

April 25 – May 5, 2025
GROOTE HEIDE VENLO

80 Years
of Freedom

In 2025, the Netherlands will commemorate eighty years of freedom. For the current municipality of Venlo, freedom came in two phases.
Blerick was liberated on December 3, 1944. For the villages on the eastern bank of the Maas River, freedom arrived three months later. During this time, the Maas was the frontline.
In the spring of 1945, the inner city of Venlo and the center of Blerick were largely in ruins. The toll of the war was immense. Venlo was one of the most heavily affected cities in the Netherlands.

About people in wartime, the horrors, inhumanity and humanity

About choices on the fine line between right and wrong

FREEDOM CANNOT
BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED

After five years of occupation, the residents were… FINALLY FREE! Freedom cannot be taken for granted. We must cherish freedom.
Understanding occupation, oppression, and the suffering of caused by war deepens the meaning and value of freedom. This is especially important in today’s world, in which wars and conflicts persist.

WATCH THE PROMO

AN IMPRESSIVE
PERFORMANCE

With new scenes and greater depth, we build upon the performance marking seventy-five years of liberation at Venlo’s city hall.
FINALLY FREE! takes visitors back to the unsuspecting border town of Venlo in the 1930s. The belief that the Netherlands would remain neutral proved to be an illusion on May 10, 1940. The performance continues with increasing repression, the tragedy of the Holocaust, the bombings of the Maas bridges, evacuation, and liberation.

A UNIQUE THEATER LOCATION