Listening Parties & Events

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, together with the National Park Service, George Washington Memorial Parkway, invite you to the second annual Freedom Concert – a celebration of the Dutch-American friendship and the power of freedom through music, dance, and the spoken word.

May 10, 2023  |  4:00-6:00pm

Netherlands Carillon
Arlington Ridge Park
Arlington, Virginia 22209

New Year’s Day 2023 marked the exact 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln signed on January 1, 1863. The document declared “that all persons held as slaves” within rebel states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” With that momentous stroke of the pen, more than 3.5 million enslaved people in the secessionist Confederate states gained their freedom.
 

At the National Bell Festival, “let freedom ring” is more than just a patriotic bon mot, it’s a call to action. Each Independence Day, we gather at the foot of the Taft Memorial and Carillon – just steps from Union Station and the National Mall in the heart of Washington, D.C. – to set bells ringing with flag-waving fervor.

The Netherlands Carillon, a gift from the people of the Netherlands to the people of the United States in gratitude for American aid during and after World War II, has rung out again over Arlington Ridge Park after a three-year restoration.

The restoration beautified and secured the open steel structure, while all 50 tower bells were returned to the Netherlands for cleaning and retuning. An additional three bells were cast and added to the assembly, elevating the instrument to grand carillon status. 

The National Bell Festival is thrilled to join the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the National Park Service in celebrating the Netherlands’ Liberation Day and the completion of the rehabilitation of the Netherlands Carillon.

And you’re invited! After a years-long restoration that began in late 2019, the Netherlands Carillon is set to resound back to life this coming Thursday, May 5, during an inaugural Freedom Concert. The morning event, which is free and open to the public, will include performances on 53 bells and addresses from both embassy and park officials.

The 19th-century bell at Georgetown Lutheran Church has resounded for the first time in decades, following a months-long restoration effort funded by the National Bell Festival. Marking 250 years since the congregation’s founding (1769-2019), the bell’s return and rededication celebrations had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but were finally realized this last weekend.

You’ve no doubt heard that age-old adage: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well, we’ve now made our own. When life gives you rain, make it ring – and that’s exactly what we did this New Year’s Day. With drenching conditions across Washington, D.C. for the third annual National Bell Festival, we were sure folks wouldn’t want to venture out into the damp to hear the music cascade from on high. We were wrong. 

That’s a wrap! The last reverberations from the final toll of the 2022 National Bell Festival have rippled across the skies. We couldn’t be more excited about all we shared, experienced, and learned at BellFest this year.

It all began in Australia. At midnight local time on New Year’s Eve (that’s a very early 8:00am for us in Washington, D.C.), the Bathurst War Memorial Carillon erupted into sound. Following the strokes of midnight, Carillonneur Denise Garland played a stirring arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne” on the 47 tower bells.

In just one month, the third annual National Bell Festival returns with the privilege of ringing in the New Year. This year’s community festival will be our most thundering yet! With bells ringing across Washington, D.C. at our festival hub, across America in our coast-to-coast ringing, and across the globe in our first-ever Ring around the World event.