Hossen, heels and polonaise walk in full sun: on Aquabest is celebrated on Saturday as if it were carnival. Rob Kemps, better known as Snollebollekes, holds the Total Loss Festival in his birthplace Best for the fifth time. “You have to be in the south for real cosiness.”
At the entrance of the site, a group of dressing clothes is ready to go inside. According to them, it is never too early for parties and carnival. “That is also possible in the summer.” The friends liked it so much last year: “That tasted like more.”
At one of the stages, Lieke is chopping with crutches on the music. “It’s no different,” she says. “I really wanted to go, but I have an injury to my knee.” It didn’t stop her. Together with her parents, she arrived from Middelharnis in South Holland to Best on Saturday.
Mothers think it’s great that she went to the festival on crutches. The family comes to the party every year. “It’s just so nice. You can go loose.” The Brabant cosiness finishes the day for them. “And if you are sitting at one stage, you go somewhere else. There is plenty to see and hear.”
That’s right, because all day you can chop, dance and jump at the festival. Tino Martin, French and son Chris Bauer, CH1PZ and Mart Hoogkamer all come by. This year there is even a special Finefishenie Omroep Brabant Podium where Jordy Graat and Christel de Laat managed to put the tent on. Festival visitors can already walk the polonaise with their hands in advance. Because tell yourself, carnival in the summer; Don’t you know better?
“We go all the way through the barrier.”
Not for three friends from Groningen. “We already started drinking this morning at eleven o’clock. We are going all the way through the barrier.” The gentlemen sleep especially for ‘the wrong friends weekend’ in Best. They are not the only ones who have had to drive for a long time, because Bert and Nick came all the way from Belgium. “We are actually the harder work, but we are also carnival lovers. This is actually carnival in the summer.”
In any case, it promises to be a long and beautiful evening. The weather is easy and that is also Mister Snollebollekes that stands behind the bar during the day. “The sun is shining, it’s a big party, really the feeling of here.” Kemps has to squeeze himself in his arm every year. “That this may be my work.”
“You can go anywhere, but you have to be here for fun.”
He understands that visitors have come to Best from all over the country. “You can go anywhere in the country, but for the real cosiness people have to go south.”
Afterwards, he will not go home on foot or by bike, just like his fellow villagers. He takes the car. “Then 20,000 people walk down the site.”
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