Highlight of the Open Stage Night was the 'Can't Dutch This' band

The 'Oude Pothuys' provides a perfect location for a night of drinking, talking and music making. Anyone can reach for the microphone and all sorts of musical instruments are waiting to be played. At around 11 p.m. the pub is chock-a-block. The evening’s host, Chuck, of ESN, grabs the microphone to kick off the evening: “Who dares?”

Italian Giuditta Cestari and Hungarian Eva Miklos are eager to take over the mike. The two girls have known each other since the beginning of the academic year. Eva really wanted to sing at the Open Stage Night and asked Giuditta to accompany her on drums. Two guys, German and French, pick up some guitars and the band is complete. The audience can let their hair down to the covers of, among others, the Four Non Blondes.

Turkish student Kunter Askin also seizes the opportunity to show his talent on the ESN stage. In Turkey, he has regularly performed as singer for a jazz band. In Utrecht, he met Italian Lorenzo, who plays the guitar. They play a couple of songs by Jason Mraz. “We only managed to practise once”, says Kunter. “I never before performed for so many people!” It is past midnight in the small café that is bursting at its seams. It is the busiest Open Stage Night of the semester. Everyone is going wild while they still can, for the last exams, papers and, finally, the journey back home, are almost here.

Highlight of the evening is the varied entertainment by the 'Can't Dutch This' band, the name is inspired by MC Hammer's nineties hit 'Can't touch this'. The band was formed at the start of the semester by Giuditta and four Australian students, and has since become ESN's 'house' band. Like true rockers they enter the stage, their flock of fans at the front holding their digital cameras up in the air. The remake of ‘Where is my mind’ by the Pixies is loosely translated into ‘Where is my bike’, a question many exchange students can relate to after having downed a number of drinks.

The audience sings along and gives them a wild applause. “We wanted to have fun and get people to join in, and it worked!” says Giuditta after the show. “It was a great night, just about everyone was here!” The Italian communications student is both drummer and singer in a band in Italy. After this semester, the ESN band members will be going their separate ways, as Giuditta is the only one staying behind for a further semester. It won’t, however, be the end of Can’t Dutch This: “I am hoping to find new people who want to join me very soon.”