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Schiermonnikoog International Chamber Music Festival  

Festival in 2010 from 2 to 7 October

The 9th Schiermonnikoog International Festival of Chamber Music will take place from 2 to 7 October 2010. The festival offers concerts of classical music performed by first-class international musicians set in peaceful surroundings of some of the finest natural beauty in the Netherlands.

The Festival Programme

The Island of Schiermonnikoog

The international Wadden Sea region stretches from Den Helder in the Netherlands to the Skallingen peninsula in Denmark. Schiermonnikoog is the most easterly and sparsely populated Wadden Island in the Netherlands. The island is 16 kilometres long and four kilometres wide. (Click here for a map.)

The island can be reached by ferry from Lauwersoog, approximately 195 km (120 miles) by car from Amsterdam. The crossing takes 45 minutes. (See Wagenborg Passagiersdiensten for ferry details.) There is a guarded car park at the Lauwersoog ferry terminal.

On Schiermonnikoog only the local residents are permitted to drive cars. Hikers and cyclists have the place virtually to themselves. The island is an excellent example of a 'nature island'. The variation in landscape includes salt marshes (the Oosterkwelder), dunes, woodlands, the Westerplas, the widest beach in the Wadden region (the Strandvlakte), sandbanks and tidal flats.

Schiermonnikoog is named after the monks ('monnik'), who wore grey ('schier') habits. In the local dialect 'oog' means island.