No bumper cars, no merry-go-round and no shooting gallery. The fair in Ommel seemed to be canceled at the very last minute. The operator who would arrange the attractions did not show up. And so something had to be invented.
“It was completely empty here on Saturday morning. There were only a few parked cars.” Jos Mennen of the fair committee in Ommel describes what the Onze Lieve Vrouweplein looked like that morning. “There should be bumper cars, a merry-go-round, a shooting gallery and a few more attractions here. The square would be completely full.”
But the square turned out to be empty. They have been working on a funfair in Ommel since March. “We’ve been busy for months,” says Jaap van Lieshout. “A large fair organization could not help us. In June we found another operator. He was very enthusiastic. He came to look here on Monday.”
“We sat there with a tear.”
On Thursday evening, suspicions arose. The committee met in Ons Jantje, the only pub in the village of a thousand inhabitants. The bumper cars should already be building, as should the merry-go-round. But there was still nothing. They just couldn’t get hold of the operator. “We finally manage to reach the operator on Saturday morning,” says Jaap. “Due to private circumstances, it was not possible to set up the fair.”
“We sat there with a tear when it turned out that there was an empty fairground”, Jaap continues. “But they did not want there to be no fair in Ommel. In one morning we arranged a new fair.”
A small merry-go-round and an inflatable assault course were rented. On the square was a large box full of corn kernels and a box of sand for children to play in. “In the end, a few operators approached us to ask if they could come to Ommel with a trampoline, popcorn and a game of balls,” says Jos. And so in the end there was still something of a fair on the village square in Ommel. This Monday is the last day.
