NOTP Fanpage

	Kris Verbruggen, born in 1974, likes music from when he was a kid; he plays piano and oboe, and was active in the Symphonic youth orchestra of Londerzeel. He finished his economic science studies in Leuven and Helsinki, and started a Belgian logistical company in Central and Eastern Europe with Poland as the center. In Poland, he also found his wife there. Also, he is the father of a (trilingual) daughter of five years old and a recent son, both likes jazz and classical music.
	Bernard: Kris, I suppose that you visited the Night of the Proms shows when you were young and became a fan. Since 2001, you’re working in Poland; were you able to follow the shows from there?
	Kris: Unfortunately, I was only able to two times to the Proms since I left Belgium, once in Antwerp and once in Munich.
Bernard: To wich artists you keep the best memories?
Kris: Being a musician myself, the music of Toto can be categorized amongst the best. but I still happily remember the ’90s when we took a bus filled with people of the academy of Londerzeel to go to the Proms. It is a wonderful event to organize as a group’s activity. Also nice, was that the German audience went crazy for Soulsister.
	Bernard: You start in Poland in a big way!
	Kris: Indeed. We the opening show on the 17th of September 2011 for the brand new Stadion Narodowy of Warschau. That’s the new national stadium that is being build of the European championship of 2012. There are 50 000 seats and the roof of glass can be closed.
Bernard: The organization of such a show seems huge.
Kris: Indeed, and it also costs a lot of money. So we’re standing in front of a really big challenge. We hope to be able to announce the main sponsor for this event very soon. From the 4rd of April, tickets will be sold through Eventim.
Bernard: Did you already contacted artists for the show?
Kris: We organized a survey with interesting results. If you play for such a big crowd, you have to get first class artists on the stage; so we’ve chosen for artists or band that already earned their stripes at NOTP, and that were requested by the audience.
Bernard: Will there only be one show in Poland?
Kris: Yes, for 2011 there will only be one big show, but the intention is to have a tour in 2012 in the biggest Polish cities like Warschau, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Lodz and Krakau.
	Bernard: What do we have to imagine of the organization? Looking for hotels and suited rooms, or is there more to it?
	Kris: Of course, that is included, but it will become more than that. You can imagine that the first music show in a brand new statium is a challenge on its own, on top of that Night of the Proms needs to get famous all over Poland and we need to sell over ten thousand tickets.
Bernard: Is the organization of a show or edition in a country like Poland more a problem for logistics? Is that why Jan & Jan contacted you?
Kris: The intention came from my side . Logistics isn’t such a problem, since we can organize rather much locally. The logistical part will be mainly the international transport of high-tech stuff from Belgium, like the famous ‘electronic pianoforte’, the elevators but also the mixers and the ‘ear plugs’ for the choir and orchestra. A few trucks filled in total!
Bernard: Is everything being transported from Belgium?
Kris: No, our Polish co-promoter is Rochstar, an inportant production house for the Polish television station in Poland. Rinke Rooyens is one of the founders in 2004; he’s a crazy Dutch guy but has a perfect feeling of what we want to accomplish and how to do it.
Bernard: Is Night of the Proms already known in Poland? Were there any shows broadcasted before or any equal incentives? Kris: There is a Last Night of the Proms in Krakau, organized on a yearly base by the local Chamber Of Commerce. but they limit themselves to kind of a copy of what the BBC is doing in London, so only classical music. The ‘real’ NOTP will enlighten the Polish music life. Promotion will be a challenge and we will do everything to get the Polish audience familiar with the Night of the Proms. For example, there will be an online-radio station which will only broadcast material of the Night of the Proms, lots of advertisements in cooperation with a national tv station and of course the known channels like posters, flyers, billboards,…
Bernard: Can the average cultural Polish person be compared with the Antwerp, German or French NOTP fan? Which kind of music would you put on the program?
Kris: I think it is somewhere in the middle between the Dutch and Germans. The French chanson culture is not known. The program will follow other editions a lot, with the much liked mix of pop and classic, topped with a scent of humor.
Bernard: We wish you best of luck with the organization.

Website NOTP Poland
Promotion clip on YouTube
NOTP Poland on Facebook
Tickets through Eventim
On the YouTube channel of NotpPoland, a few compilations of NOTP artists are listed
360° virtual tour of the soccer stadium that is being build