From 1983 to 1990 Henk Wentink was a co-founder, techie, barkeep, ticket seller, member of the board and a jack-of-all-trades at the punk squat venue De Goudvishal (1984-2007) in Arnhem, The Netherlands. Together with his mate Marcel Stol he wanted to tell the story of the Goudvishal and its forerunner De Stokvishal. It’s a tale about how a group young punks in the early eighties squatted an old warehouse and transformed it into a nationally and internationally well-known venue for underground music. It’s also a story of raw creative energy, political activism and anarchistic Do-It-Yourself attitude that thrived in the eighties in the Netherlands. 

Henk Wentink graduated as a historian in art and architecture at the University of Amsterdam. He worked as an adviser on arts, culture and the creative industry, and wrote a handful of small books about the architecture, history and heritage of Arnhem. Eventually he made a switch to become an adviser on climate adaptive cities and the use and design of public space and urban green areas. Today he is an enthusiastic attendee of punk and alternative gigs, and also a fruit grower who manages an organic orchard of about 150 fruit trees.