Hope College will host its 90th annual Nykerk Cup competition on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 7 p.m. at the Holland Civic Center in conjunction with the college’s One Big Weekend (Homecoming + Family Weekend) celebration. The doors will open at 6 p.m.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The event will feature members of the freshman and sophomore classes competing in song, plays and oration. The participating classes this year are the freshman Class of 2028 and the sophomore Class of 2027, who are being coached by the junior Class of 2026 and the senior Class of 2025, respectively. The then-sophomore Class of 2026 won last year’s contest.
The competition, first held on March 16, 1936, is named in honor of the originator of the program, John Nykerk, a professor, college dean and founder of the Hope College Department of Music.
This year’s installment includes a return to a former long-time and still-periodic venue for the contest. Nykerk was held at the Civic Center every year but one from 1956 through 2013. It has primarily been held in the college’s Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse since 2014, although it also took place in the Civic Center in 2021 when, as this year, the fieldhouse was unavailable because of home athletic competition. (Because the Civic Center was extensively remodeled between 2016 and 2018, it is much changed inside since it originally hosted the contest.)
Nykerk has never been canceled, having been held with the participants online in 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and was even held twice in 1939, when it transitioned from the spring to the fall. The only postponement on record was in 2008, when a campus norovirus outbreak caused the event to be delayed to the following weekend, which also prompted relocation from the Holland Civic Center to Central Wesleyan Church.
The other sites that have hosted the contest since it began are the former Carnegie Gymnasium on campus (1936-39); the Woman’s Literary Club (1940-44); and the auditorium of the former Holland High School at Pine Avenue and 15th Street (1944-55).
The college’s One Big Weekend (Homecoming + Family Weekend) celebration is running Friday-Saturday, Oct. 25-26. Additional information about the weekend is available at hope.edu/onebigweekend
To inquire about accessibility or if you need accommodations to fully participate in the event, please email accommodations@hope.edu. Updates related to events are posted when available in the individual listings at hope.edu/calendar
The Holland Civic Center is located at 150 W. 8th St., between 8th and 9th streets and Pine and Maple avenues.