This week you can play the Fair Bingo at the Helmond café Lokaal42. This is a card on which terrace visitors can tick off innocent items such as a ‘big hug’, ‘cotton candy’ or a ‘cinnamon stick’ as they pass by. But there are also more controversial topics such as ‘sprayed lips’ and ‘meat castle’ on the bingo card. Omroep Brabant played bingo and asked the ‘leopard print’ and the ‘tracksuit’ what they think of the card. “No, I’m not offended.”
You wonder whether this is still possible in 2026. So Omroep Brabant investigated and presented this to the Helmonders.
How do you feel about being on a fairground bingo card? “Very nice! Fantastic!” A lady in a leopard print coat with a small dog on her arm laughs loudly when she sees that she scores two boxes on the card. ‘Leopard print’ and ‘mini-dog’ are ticked off.
Nice skewers
“Just sitting on the terrace and people watching. Isn’t that the most beautiful thing there is?” With a big wink, Lydia Roos from Lokaal42 in Helmond developed the ‘fair bingo card’. “Hide behind a beer and skewer people (Helmonds for peeping, ed.).”
The bingo card contains 24 boxes with words such as ‘yawning fairground worker’ or ‘bling bling’, but also ‘front buttocks’, ‘golden tooth’ and ‘name ending with ‘O’.
Not all words are equally clear. ‘Wood curl’ requires some explanation. “That is a camp woman who has just spent three hours at the hairdresser to go to the fair,” explains Jurrien van Buijinck, co-owner of Lokaal42.
And a meat castle? “That’s a very big person,” says Roos, turning her arms in a large circle.
Offensive?
Anyone who has checked all the boxes can report to the bar to grab a prize. What you can win? “Rubbish! People think it’s hilarious.” Her favorite word on the card? ‘Too fat and still eating’.
Isn’t that insulting? “Well, what’s insulting? They look like that themselves.” says Rose. She is not afraid that people will be offended by the bingo card. “Helmond is very popular.”
‘Sportiest city in the Netherlands’
“No, I’m not offended that you are now identifying me as a mobility scooter rider,” says a man in a mobility scooter. He sees the humor in fairground bingo. A grandmother who treats her grandchildren to cotton candy also has to laugh when she sees the card.
A Helmond in a tracksuit doesn’t have to search for himself for long on the map. He ticks ‘Training suit’. With a big smile he proudly says: “We are the sportiest city in the Netherlands.”
Omroep Brabant did not encounter people who felt offended by the bingo card during the tour of the fair. The boxes ‘too fat and still eating’, ‘smoking behind the pram’, ‘steroids man’ and ‘fat role’ remained empty on the bingo card.
