The Blue Grass Boogiemen: Portaits of the Past

Café 't Rozenknopje is a brown café in the Gestel part of Eindhoven, and its name translates as the rosebud. The bar is thought to date from around 1868, making it one of the oldest in the city, though one source gives 1897 as its founding year. It has been a bar throughout and has changed little in appearance. At one point it was nicknamed the living room of Gestel, a description the venue itself now stretches to cover everyone who walks in. It is open seven days a week, and music sits at the center of what goes on there. The most distinctive feature is the theatre hall on the first floor, added around 1901. That was an unusual thing to build in a café outside the center of Eindhoven at the time. Over the decades the room hosted concerts and dances, and local choirs used it for rehearsals. During the Second World War it served as a classroom, and in the early 1950s it was used as a church. It stayed in use as a hall until the early 1970s, when the condition of the walls and ceiling forced its closure. Around 2000 the room was rebuilt, and it has since been used again for concerts, debates, comedy nights and other live events. The downstairs bar, by contrast, has stayed largely as it was. Live music happens in two places: the nostalgic theatre hall upstairs and a smaller, cosy stage downstairs, with house DJs playing their favourite tracks at other times. The programme leans toward the intimate end of the spectrum, with acoustic sets, folk, Americana, jazz trios, storytelling and stand up. Past shows include British singer songwriters such as Seth Lakeman and Will Varley, which gives a fair sense of the listening room character, where a close crowd, warm wood interiors and clear sightlines put the focus on the performer.