Since 2021, Groningen has had the talent development program GRONDSLAG, where the most promising local musical talent is prepared for the real deal within one cultural season. And you get to see if they’ve made it! Part of the ‘24/25 cohort will showcase their skills during Noorderzon at Podium Callisto and De Raaf.

The Last Mandrill is a Dutch artist and interdisciplinary composer working in alternative rock and pop music, composition, and collaborating with visual artists. The Last Mandrill offers a melting pot of ’90s alt-rock combined with a futurophobic worldview, where nostalgia and despair confront what’s to come and what will turn out well. His themes of mythologized or intensified reality focus on the theatrical, delivered with the romantic sincerity of a self-mocking host.