1/3 The Bart group app has reached the magical limit of 1025 Barts.
A WhatsApp group full of men named Bart has reached the magical limit of 1025 Barts. No new members can be added to the group, which consists of a third of Brabant Bartenders. The fun is not over for 23-year-old Bart van de Meulenreek from Nuland, because the next ‘BartBQ’ is already being planned. “Home is where the Bart is.”
The Omroep Brabant program Zinderend Zuiden featured two Bartens on Monday evening who had agreed via the group app at the hardstyle event REACTIVATE in Poppodium 013 in Tilburg.
“After that video, the number of Barts in the group app increased from 850 Barts to 1025 Barts. That is the maximum number WhatsApp allows in a group, so we now also have a Bart waiting list,” laughs Bart from Nuland.
“Two hundred Barts together at the Bartbeque.”
The group was founded in 2017. Bart van Meulenreek himself has been in the group app since 2021. “I am Bart number 185. In 2023, about two hundred Barts came together at the BartBQ.”
The next BartBQ is already planned and is on May 25. “Then we do an introduction round, chat about what we do and have a nice beer. Not much useful: just man talk, Bart talk.”
One third of the group consists of Brabant Bartenders and, according to Bart, they like to party. “We often meet at one of the festivals in the province. Or someone in the group asks if there are Bartens at a concert or abroad.”
Bart himself met a namesake in Curaçao, who put him in the group app four years ago. “Everywhere you go there is a Bart,” he says. The men even have an Instagram page called Heel Holland Bart.
The club even has special T-shirts and caps for all meetings. “It contains sayings such as: The Bart and the Beautiful, Good, better Bart, Home is where the Bart is and Inkakken is getting Bart.”
The ages of all Bartens in the group vary widely. “The youngest Bart is from 2007 and the oldest Bart was born in the late sixties,” says Bart number 185.
The Bartens are proud that they defeated the club StijnmaarFijn, for men named Stijn. “All respect for Stijnen, but Bart is a superior name. We have exceeded the number of participants in that group.”
He doesn’t have to think long about why it is so nice to get together with namesakes. “You have a connection from the first moment.”
WE WROTE THIS PREVIOUSLY ABOUT THE STIJN CLUB:
All Stijnen gather, this is the FeStijn in Breda