Jesse Timmermans

Just over two years ago, my girlfriend Lieke and I moved from Nijmegen to the beautiful Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. What started as a joke because we enjoyed a holiday in Terneuzen so much, quickly became reality. The experiment of trading the city for the peace and space of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen worked out so well that after 2.5 years, with more joy, calm, and connection, we've fully settled into Zeeland. 

During the Christmas holidays of 2022, we stayed in Terneuzen for a week and I still remember the moment I thought: ‘Don’t we just want to live here?’ We were standing by the Westerschelde, on the Zeedijk, and the sound of the waves and the friendly approach of all the walkers made an impression on me. We decided to follow our hearts, throw everything into a van, and head for the tunnel.

DO YOUR THING. SO DO WE.
It’s a cliché, the peace and the space. But what struck us most was how approachable people are here. How easy it is to strike up a conversation on the street or in the shops. When I moved here, I worked for a while as an online marketer at Get a Grip in Terneuzen, where I felt that same vibe. To experiment with different work, I also spent a year as a WMO taxi driver and noticed the same thing. The region is full of stories and people who are proud of their lives in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.

In the end, my desire for creativity and working with other creatives in the region won out. That’s how I ended up as a brand specialist in Clinge, at film paradise Bruutsterdam and got in touch with Joost from Biervliet, of Joost Media. The creative sector in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen isn’t about competition or outdoing each other, but about seeking each other out and above all wanting to work together. We experienced that too when organizing our own Drum and Bass party ‘Ga Diep’ at Poppodium de Pit.

TOGETHER WORKS BETTER
We got in touch with Jeroen, Dennis, and Joost from Paniek Collectief and met Dylan from Orion Records, a record store in Terneuzen. Together we organized an awesome party at the Pit and in all those collaborations you can really feel how everyone in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen understands that you get much further together than alone. It resulted in launching a new brand with which I want to help even more entrepreneurs in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen tell their success stories.

With Feel the Vonk I now help countless entrepreneurs keep their creative fire burning so all those stories also find their way out into the world. 2.5 years ago, I never expected there would be so many cool projects to be found here in the region. So we’re far from done with Zeeuws-Vlaanderen! Here, people don’t work from competition, but from fun, passion, and craftsmanship. So we can safely say: our fire is burning brighter than ever!