Bert Vossen is leaving Moulin Blues.

We had it coming for some time, but now the moment’s here. After twenty-three years. Bert Vossen decided to end his career as organiser of Moulin Blues. Together with Johan Creemers, Syl Lenders and Henk Douven, Henk Vossen was one of the founders of Moulin Blues. The second year only Bert and Henk remained, and they took action to form a new committee. The board was extended with Jo Evers, Ludo van Thuijl and Bart Bijlmakers and together they made Moulin Blues to what it is now. That is the biggest blues festival in the Netherlands. A festival that made name and fame for itself far beyond the borders. Starting as a small event it became a festival of significance in the national and international blues world.

Bert: “For 23 years I co-organised Moulin Blues with a lot of fun and passion. With pride I can look back to a beautiful and instructive period. I’m justly proud to see, after the intensive trailblazing work, that Moulin Blues is firmly on the world map. That makes it so hard to let your ‘child’ go.”

From the beginnings (1986) Bert took a very professional and especially passionate approach. Everything revolved around Moulin Blues. He taped every radio blues show to record this beautiful music.

Bert: “We do as much as possible ourselves, that’s why MB has such a large board. Together with the many volunteers we work real hard to have a good festival. In the early years I also did the layout of the printings, printing T-shirts and bumper stickers, offprint of the billboards etc. Very nice, but very hard to do it all by yourself.

Bert was infected with the blues virus. It’s known that Bert often crossed his physical limits, everything was about The Blues. The last years Bert eased up a bit, due to his poor eyesight.

But nevertheless he always enjoyed it entirely. But all things come to an end, that’s life. Moulin Blues will certainly continue, although it will be different. That’s not because of the present or even new people are not capable to do the job, far from it. But often after one of the figureheads disappear, a new wind is gonna blow. Time will tell. One this is certain, for Bert time has come to explore new horizons.

Bert: “Many fine memories and tales will stay on my mind for quite a while. Now I can fully dedicate myself to my massage practice ‘Doet Goed’. So, new challenges and who knows … maybe my fingers will itch to do something with music again.”

That there are many tales to tell illustrates the next story:

Bert: “If I look back over my shoulders, we did an awful lot of work. But I always enjoyed Moulin Blues. One band never showed up and that was Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack. Well, there you are without one of your headliners. I swiftly enlisted Marc Thys from Belgium, who on the spot recruited some fellow countrymen and they played a fierce set. The audience enjoyed this ‘Stan Webb’, many didn’t even notice the real Stan Webb wasn’t there. Great, wasn’t it?”

On behalf of the complete team of Bobtjes Blues Pages we wish Bert all the success in the world for his new challenge. Of course our thanks for many beautiful moments he gave us. Bert, good luck to you.

Translation by: Ton Kok