The sound of Groningen: ‘Het gras van het Noorderplantsoen’

One morning I woke up with a song stuck in my head from the night out. The song was from Groningen and the title translates to ‘the grass of the Noorderplantsoen.’ When I asked what the Noorderplantsoen was, someone told me this was ‘the’ park of Groningen. When it became clear to him that I was interested in music, he told me that there is a music chapel in the Noorderplantsoen and that the park is at its best during summer when there are plenty of people relaxing and playing music. Underneath, you can see the picture he showed me. Unfortunately, it was winter now, but I could still imagine what it would be like during summer. I could almost feel the happiness and laughter of all those people there. It almost looked as if the park was waiting in silence for that period to come, longing to the happiness connected with the sun.

Especially in these last sentences, you can see the role of affects, emotions and feelings. These terms are closely interconnected. Affects and can be seen as a mood that exists before it becomes available to thought and can be both conscious or non-conscious. Emotions are psychological and can be thought about. Feelings are more closely connected to the body and senses. They also play an important role in tourism as emotions and feelings define places and the people connected to them. Ahmed states in her research that emotions are shaped through contact. The interaction between places and people play an important role, as can be seen in the example above where this person creates the first positive association with the song, and as a result, the Noorderplantsoen. Furthermore, he talks about how the connection of all those people during summer creates the happy and relaxed atmosphere that he so much loves, which shows the influence of people interacting on the atmosphere.