The Marres Garden Festival takes place on June 12 and 13 in Maastricht’s largest public city garden. Explore workshops, performances, and moments of connection in the heart of the city.
Moss
Nature-conscious workshop and sensory tent
by Anneke Wubbolts
Free entrance
Discover the magic of moss! As appreciation for nature wanes, so does the willingness to take climate action; the Moss project explores this through a sensory installation of moss that promotes tranquility, mindfulness, and respect for nature, followed by a workshop in which participants use natural, biodegradable materials to create temporary artworks that return to the earth, thereby strengthening the relationship between humans and nature.
While studying visual communication in Maastricht, Anneke Wubbolts learned to look at art, creators, and the world around her in a new way. After graduating, she founded her own company, studio KEANS. In her work, she combines various media and techniques to make social themes accessible and stimulate dialogue. Through this, she aims to spark awareness and forge new connections.
Date:
Friday, 12 June, 2026
Project Moss will also be on display on June 13!
Time:
5:30—8PM
Entrance:
Free
Language:
Dutch
Group size:
20 persons
Location:
Marres city garden
Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht
Please check in at the front desk first!
Hidden Stories of the Garden
Guided tour on history and green heritage
by Angelina Valleau
Discover the hidden layers of Marres’s urban garden and join us in exploring its history, value, and future, gaining practical knowledge and insights along the way.
Angelina Valleau (1971) is an expert in built heritage and its sustainability, with a growing specialization in green heritage: an often-overlooked aspect of historic preservation. Drawing on her “Green Heritage” program at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, she focuses on analyzing, evaluating, and future-proofing historic gardens and landscapes.
Date:
Saturday, 13 June, 2026
Time:
10—11AM
Entrance:
Day pass for Saturday: €15
This includes:
– Guided tour by Angelina Valleau
– Workshop (including lunch) by Wilgenvrouwen
– Performance by Plantelectra Orchestra
Language:
Dutch
Group size:
20 persons
Location:
Marres city garden
Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht
Please check in at the front desk first!
The Willow Women Project (Wilgenvrouwen)
Alchemical & Cyclical Garden workshop, including a group lunch
by Pleun Moons and Beatrice Pittman
Explore how a garden can function as a living workplace, where the relationship between art, spirituality, and natural cycles is brought to life through artistic inquiry, daily care, and self-sustaining practices.
At lunchtime, we’ll enjoy a plant-based meal together.
Pleun Moons draws inspiration from her collaboration with her garden, which centers on the relationship between humans and the earth. Her practice combines physical labor with more contemplative methods, resulting in a variety of forms such as paintings, dinners, and harvest festivals. She works cyclically: what grows is processed and returns as the foundation for new work. In this way, she develops a sustainable, ever-evolving practice.
Beatrice Pittman sees the bringing together of people, objects, and rituals as a form of “weaving.” This gives rise to interactive situations in which people and their surroundings enter into dialogue with one another. Her work is exploratory and experiential, with a focus on physicality and encounter. She draws on ancient crafts and rituals and works as a spaceholder: she creates and maintains a setting in which exchange and shared experience take center stage.
Date:
Saturday, 13 June, 2026
Time:
11AM—3:30PM
Entree:
Day pass for Saturday: €15
This includes:
– Guided tour by Angelina Valleau
– Workshop (including lunch) by Wilgenvrouwen
– Performance by Plantelectra Orchestra
Language:
Dutch
Group size
20 persons
Location:
Marres city garden
Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht
Please check in at the front desk first!
Performance Plantelectra Orchestra / in roots connected
by Julia van de Kar and Ananya Samyt
Experience an intimate performance in which plants use technology to produce sound, effectively becoming musicians themselves. In a small, immersive setting, a performer moves among the plants and interacts with them, while their rhythms and vibrations become audible to the audience. Get closer to nature, which takes center stage here as a living presence.
Julia van de Kar is a theater artist, performer, and educator who graduated from the Maastricht Academy of Performing Arts. She works intuitively and physically, focusing on voice and movement as universal forms of communication. Her performances exist in the space between the visible and the hidden, creating opportunities for connection and reflection. She also develops participatory workshops and works as a museum educator.
Ananya Samyt is a performer and sound artist who works at the intersection of nature and technology. Using modular synthesizers and biosensors, she translates electrical signals from plants into sound, with the plants acting as active creators. Her work often emerges in collaboration with musicians and invites a new way of listening, where nature and electronics converge.
Date:
Saturday, 13 June, 2026
Tijd:
3:30—5PM
Entrance:
Day pass for Saturday: €15
This includes:
– Guided tour by Angelina Valleau
– Workshop (including lunch) by Wilgenvrouwen
– Performance by Plantelectra Orchestra
Language:
Dutch/English
Group size:
20 personen
Location:
Marres city garden
Capucijnenstraat 98, Maastricht
Please check in at the front desk first!
Hans Engelbrecht
Throughout the day, ecological gardener Hans van Engelbrecht will be on hand to answer a wide range of questions about the flora and fauna in the Marres garden, which he knows like the back of his hand.
Hans Engelbrecht is the owner of the company De Groene Stap. He skillfully weaves together cultural history, ecology, and the surrounding environment. This results in a connection between gardens and landscaped spaces where nature and natural processes take center stage. In Maastricht, his projects include the Marres city garden, the Sphinxpark, and the Garden of Mercy.
Information
The workshops will take place regardless of the weather, so please dress appropriately!
Questions? Email receptie@marres.org
Partners / thanks to
Marres receives ongoing support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science, the Province of Limburg, and the City of Maastricht.
Marres would also like to thank Hans Engelbrecht, the ecological gardener and designer of the city garden, our volunteer Thuur, and everything that grows and blooms in the garden.
