Those who went to D’n Opstoet on Sunday afternoon didn’t really need a scarf, but sunglasses and factor 50. After more than three years of waiting, another carnival parade passed through Kruikenstad. That also meant that the carnival associations were finally allowed to get their cars out of the construction hall.
One by one the cars come out of the shed, the builders of various associations watch with bated breath. Fortunately, everything is going well and the cars can leave for the Piushaven without any problems. They position themselves there and the dots are put on the i before D’n Opstoet starts.
Carnival association De Scheel Praaje also gathered at a business park in Kraaiven to leave for the Piushaven. They all watch as the car they built two years ago is finally allowed to go outside.
It is fitting and measuring, the car just fits through the door. “I’m happy when it’s safe inside,” one of the builders laughs.
It has been three years since the last Parade was held and therefore also the last time they could drive a car. In 2020 the parade was canceled due to bad weather, the following year due to the pandemic. Now they can finally go again.
According to Chris Emmers, chairman of the carnival association and of the construction association De Scheel Praaje, it should not have lasted longer. “After more than two years, we were really tired of it.”
Their car, an imaginative story with a moving dragon, boat and a hot air balloon, sat gathering dust in the construction hall for two years. “We spent a month dusting,” says Wim Verhagen, one of the builders.
They cleaned the entire car and checked all the technology to make sure everything still worked. “For all these people it is really their hobby”, Wim says proudly.
They have not been idle in the past two years. Together with other associations, they continued to build, resulting in two extra cars. Whenever possible, they met on Wednesday evenings to build the cars. It has become a close-knit group.
The photo on the front of their largest car shows how close the group is. It is a photo of one of their oldest members, Tiny Spijkers. He died of lung cancer in May 2020, after a short illness. “That’s how he is there,” say Annelies Emmers and Ad van Iersel.
While the cars wait for the signal to start driving, the sun finally breaks through. Annelies laughs: “Tiny was always cold, but now he brings the sun for us.”