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De Maaspoort is the first theatre in the Netherlands to immediately make tickets for children up to 12 years free of charge. Making a cheerful, positive noise amid ever-rising prices and keeping theatre accessible for children, that is what we want to achieve with this initiative

"There is so much coming at everyone socially, in fact this is just a good time to relax in the fantasy of the theatre, but for many households a visit becomes literally unaffordable. A shame!" indicates director Leon Thommassen. "With our team, we started thinking about what we could do, something from our core and that is really meaningful. We were almost immediately convinced that we wanted to do something for our youngest audience."

The theatre sector has taken a hit in recent years and still has no reason for optimism with extremely rising energy prices, related inflation and labour shortages. Passing on the rising costs by increasing ticket prices is not an option for the organisation. Indeed, lowering tickets would make more sense to keep the performances accessible to a wide audience. And that is exactly what we want to achieve by making the (family) performances free for children up to 12 years old with immediate effect.

Three out of four children are missed in theatre
In 2021, three out of four children missed the theatre compared to the last 'normal' year 2019. Approximately 15% of school-age children went to a performance at least once in 2021. That is a quarter of the share in 2019, when 59% of school-age children went to a performance at least once (source: VSCD). "So this initiative is going to help ensure that there is no lost generation for the theatre," Thommassen explains enthusiastically.

All children to the theatre
With the same enthusiasm, the theatre director has found a number of local, very socially involved parties willing to contribute to the initiative. Those contributions will be pooled into a Youth Fund, from which the free tickets will be paid for. Visitors who have the space can show support for the plan in an accessible way; by paying for the theatre tickets. That option will simply remain. The fund will entirely benefit making theatre accessible to youth. The aim is to reach all children in Venlo and the region with it.

Win-win
"The great thing about this initiative is that artists and producers do not charge for it and we naturally expect a lot of children in the theatres," adds marketing manager Linda Keijzers-van Vegchel. "That makes us all happy! I hope other theatres will follow, making the offer accessible to children in this way is not yet happening anywhere in the Netherlands."

Youth from 13 years onwards have also been considered, this scheme was already in place: by showing their school or student pass, they can buy tickets for just €12.50 from 48 hours prior to the performance.