After a year full of celebrations, but also with some setbacks, Oudenbosch ended its 750th anniversary on a grand note on Thursday evening with a light show on the basilica. The show was canceled on Wednesday due to technical problems and earlier this year the festive year came under pressure due to the embezzlement of tens of thousands of euros by a treasurer.
It was quite a challenge to put together the light show, says organizer Femke. “Someone from our organization saw something like this in Utrecht and thought: how cool would that be on our basilica. Normally this would take a year, but we accomplished this in a month and a half,” she says.
And then it is not surprising that there were technical problems with the light show on Wednesday evening and it did not go ahead. Earlier this year, the anniversary year also came under pressure when it emerged that a treasurer had embezzled tens of thousands of euros.
“Then the question is: what are you going to do? Are you going to call it off because one person does something like that? We also think that’s stupid. The rest of the village can’t do anything about it either. We wanted to end it festively,” says Vugts.
That choice was visibly rewarded on Sunday evening. The entire village turned out to see the basilica light up. “It was very beautiful. Super busy too, but that made it fun,” says Gionno. Laura was visibly proud. “Then you are proud that you can live here.”
Children were also amazed. 9-year-old Merle could hardly believe it. “I thought it was beautiful too. I never thought this was possible in our village,” she says. Ize was just as enthusiastic. “It looked really cool.”
Jan-Willem came especially back to Oudenbosch, where he previously lived. “I really liked it. I never expected it,” he says. “A few years ago, Oudenbosch was always boring. But when you see what they organize now, it’s just fun. Oudenbosch is really changing.”
The light show told the story of Oudenbosch and was made possible by many residents who played a role in the project. Despite the previous setbacks, pride prevails among visitors and the organization. “For what we have achieved in such a short time, it is insane,” says Femke.
Visitor Francien completely agrees. “It was incredibly cool. The whole story of Oudenbosch was in it. Beautiful to see.”