Bert travels throughout the country with his mini fair

Bert van Houten was present at the Tilburg Kermis with twenty fair exhibitions. He is also a member of the jury of many fairs and is vice-chairman of Kermiscultuur Nederland. Van Houten travels throughout the country with his mini fair, of which he builds, paints and maintains the attractions himself. This week the creations can be admired in the residential care center de Annenborch in Rosmalen.

“I have everything in my head,” says van Houten. “I don’t have any drawings. I just start with a prototype and eventually it takes five years. Sometimes I have to start over halfway through.” There are hundreds of components to Van Houten’s attractions. Sometimes something goes wrong during construction. “Especially the lights sometimes break. And you hardly get those lights anymore. I buy them all abroad, for example in Germany.”

Van Houten is not thinking about stopping yet. But he sometimes lies awake about the future of his life’s work.

“In Japan they love this.”

“My children and grandchildren like it, but they don’t devastate it. As I get older I start thinking about it more and more. Where is all this going?” There are people who want to buy the exhibition, but Van Houten does not want to lose the mini fair just like that. “They love it in Japan,” he says. “But I’d like to keep it closer.”

As vice-chairman of Kermiscultuur Nederland, he sometimes has to step into major attractions. “We once had to go in such a high whirligig when it was all still fairly new. I was sitting there together with the current mayor of Oosterwijk. We held on to each other up there and when we came down we said to each other: we will never go there. more in!”

The drawings on the attractions are painted by Van Houten himself.  (photo: DTV Oss).
The drawings on the attractions are painted by Van Houten himself. (photo: DTV Oss).

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