While we hardly dare to turn up the heating a degree and keep a close eye on the offers in the supermarkets, we don’t seem to be cutting back on fireworks this New Year’s Eve. Fireworks dealers even expect record sales. For example, the number of online orders is already higher than around the same period in 2019.
Around the past two years, fireworks were not allowed throughout the Netherlands due to corona and the imminent overload of hospitals. This year it is allowed again in many places. “We are very happy because the past few years have been tough,” says Astrid de Jong of fireworks shop D’n Duizendklapper in Sprundel.
“The presale is already three times as much as normal.”
A little further on in Bergen op Zoom, her colleague Ed ‘Raket’ Vader is busy getting his shop ready. “I notice from the customers that they are looking forward to it and have even saved for it. The presale is already three times as much as normal. Our importer no longer sells fireworks, so we expect things to really go wild this year.”
Despite the fireworks ban, the shopkeepers saw quite a bit being set off over the past two years. “Of course that was very frustrating. Ten kilometers away in Belgium fireworks were allowed to be sold. In the meantime, we were biting a stick here,” says Ed.
Astrid: “We really didn’t see it coming last year. All the orders had been placed and the leaflets had been printed. That was really no fun.”
It’s like wine, the older the better.
The total amount of fireworks that will now be sold has been ‘waiting’ for two years in German and Dutch bunkers. According to fireworks dealer Ed Vader, this does not affect the quality. “If it comes from China by sea at the last minute, you sometimes have moisture in the boxes. Now the fireworks have been able to dry for two years. It’s like wine: the older the better.”
In the Netherlands, loose rockets and firecrackers have been banned since 2020. Around the turn of the year, only so-called cake boxes with decorative fireworks may be sold. “You only have to light it once for your own fireworks show. So they are also much safer,” says Astrid.
Perhaps such an imminent ban is the reason that people now want to bang extra.
During the coming New Year, no fireworks may be set off in twelve municipalities in the Netherlands. The local authorities consider the damage and nuisance too great. In our province, this is not yet the case. Ed: “That makes no sense as long as fireworks are for sale in other places in Europe. But perhaps such an imminent ban is the reason that people now want to go extra hard.”
