Maastricht and its traditions

Traditions and the Maastricht dialect are part of our city. SAB wants support for carnival, brass bands and community clubs. And attention for the Maastricht dialect, on signs and in the classroom too.

What is going on

The Maastricht dialect is a city language of its own, with an estimated sixty thousand speakers, its own dictionary, its own spelling and its own literature. Like every regional language it is passed on less than it used to be. The language lives mainly in community life: at Veldeke Mestreech, the brass bands, the choirs and the carnival clubs. That is where a child still hears Maastrichts every day.

Traditions cost money: a rehearsal room, a grant for a parade, a club keeping its head above water. In a budget that always looks like the easiest thing to cut, because nobody falls ill from it directly. If community life disappears, the language goes with it.

What SAB wants

• Lasting support from the city for carnival, brass bands, choirs and community life in the neighbourhoods.
• The Maastricht dialect visible in the city: on street signs, at the city offices and in the classroom.
• Affordable rehearsal and club space in every neighbourhood, even when a community centre is threatened with closure.
• Grants a small club can actually apply for, without needing an accountant.

What you can do now

The dictionary is online at mestreechtertaol.nl and anyone who wants to learn to read and write the dialect can use the course book Liergaank Mestreechs. Do you know a club about to fold? Tell SAB’s help desk. The guide on the Maastricht dialect has more.