The chamber also provided public entertainment at such events as the triumphal entry into Antwerp of Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. During the 1590s there were no regular public performances, and for much of the decade meetings were prohibited by decree, but after 1600 members and sympathisers of the guild again began to meet weekly for dramatic and rhetorical exercises. During the Twelve Years' Truce, representatives of De Olijftak attended a rhetoric competition hosted in Amsterdam on 7 July 1613 by the Amsterdam chamber Wit Lavendel (White lavender), and another hosted in Haarlem by the Wyngaertranken (the Vines) on 18 August 1613. The organisation was overhauled in 1615. In 1618 De Olijftak hosted a blazoenfeest in Antwerp: a rhetoric competition in which chambers entered "blazons", or painted and decorated verse rebuses carried in procession, with prizes for best rhyme, best delivery, best painting, best decoration, best procession, and so on. In 1619 the chamber was deeply in debt, having overspent on banquets and performances.
