From Tuesday, the center of Tilburg will change from a city center with cars, trees, bicycle racks and bus shelters into a city full of fairground attractions. The fair is coming and so everything has to disappear from the streets.
The through roads through the center will be closed at exactly noon. At least two weeks the fair is the service. And so everything has to be adjusted.
Traffic lights and traffic signs will disappear on Spoorlaan. A little further on at the Heuvelring a bus shelter disappears. It is one of four bus shelters to make way for attractions.
“When building bus shelters, we took the fair into account.”
That seems like a bigger job than it is: “This bus stop can easily be dismantled. The Tilburg Fair was taken into account during construction,” explains Paul van der Putten of Van den Bersselaar Constructie. “When the bus shelter is gone, the steel formwork is filled with concrete blocks, so that the street is tidy again in one go.”
Moments later, the bus shelter flies through the air, onto the truck: out of town for two weeks. “And when the fair is over, it goes in reverse order. Then we lift out the concrete blocks and the bus shelter can be placed in it immediately.”
“Shopkeepers bring nice cold drinks.”
A little further on, Tonnie pulls out a traffic sign from the street. He has been busy with about seventy colleagues since seven o’clock in the morning: “It’s going well. The shopkeepers take good care of us, now and then they bring nice cold drinks. This is how they ensure that we keep it up.” Because it is certain to Tonnie that it will work again: “We don’t have a corona, so just go for it”, he shouts enthusiastically.
The first fairground attractions arrive at Spoorlaan around two o’clock in the afternoon. And so the very first viewers to the build-up are already ready.
“Yes, it will start again. Full house, huh?!”, it sounds in true Tilburg. In his scooter a man sits ringside in the shade. Now there are only about five people, but that will soon change: “We are immediately with an entire club together. They are the same every year. The old ones, they say,” he laughs. “I do enjoy this. You won’t see me at the fair, only at the construction site. And when breaking down.”
But it’s not that far yet. The Tilburg Kermis starts on Friday. The official opening is at seven o’clock in the evening, but at three o’clock in the afternoon it is already going wild. And Omroep Brabant is of course there.
Watch ‘ t Kermis Buske on Omroep Brabant
‘t Brabants Buske is also at the Tilburg Fair this week! The team is looking for beautiful fairground stories and memories of people from Brabant. Do you have a tip or nice story, send a message to the Facebook page of ‘t Brabants Buske and send them on their way.
You can see ‘t Kermis Buske every day from 5.40 pm (then repeated every hour) from Monday 25 July to Friday 30 July on Omroep Brabant TV and online.
