It seems to be an episode of the Flemish former TV celebrity Paul Jambers. During the day, Anik Geppaard is a funeral attendant and in her evenings she exchanges her modest work clothes for a glittery crown and cloak as the carnival princess of Bonenprikkerslaand (Chaam). Especially now. “I assume that I will be on the road again for five days.”
With her double function, Anik symbolizes just about everything that we have been faced with over the past two years. “It’s like life, isn’t it. With a smile and with a tear”, she chuckles. Because in 2020 she was the very first carnival princess van Chaam to lead a full carnival, last year the Brabant pubs were as cozy and extinct as an average cemetery due to the corona crisis.
This year it will be different, if we can anticipate the press conference on Tuesday evening. According to the leaked plans, the catering industry can open again next Friday. Precisely on the day that Brabant’s largest folk festival erupts.
And that is noticeable, says Anik. “Everyone is enthusiastic, the board is super busy and I am approached everywhere. By young and old. Everyone wants to know what we are going to do as a board. We had already prepared a lot of things online, such as a carnival quiz, but that was plan A and this is plan B. I assume that I will be on the road again for five days.”
It takes some getting used to. Anik took two weeks off this year around Carnival. To scale down from her work as a funeral director and because she missed the party enormously, like so many people from Brabant. Laughing: “I was very well received in Chaam two years ago, but you are sworn in here as Highness for three years. I’m so happy that we can do something again, because I don’t count last year’s carnival of course.”
“The Testicle Ball on Monday is something I’m already looking forward to with great pleasure. Then the pubs are already packed at eight o’clock in the morning. But I still enjoy meeting people live and drinking beer together, because you celebrate carnival together. So yes, if the good news is actually announced during the press conference tonight, I’ll open a bubble.”