That they are made of gold in Koekange, they are only too happy to propagate that. If you follow the main road from the N375 to the far direction of the Westerbergen holiday park in Echten, you will be confronted with the number 50 every ten metres.
The 50 comes back in many guises, gold-edged or as a traffic sign. In the built-up area itself, numerous historical events are reflected on signs from all those years since 1973. The anniversary also meant that more streets were decorated than ever. “Last year only two, now no less than seventeen,” beams board member Christina Tijmens. “Only we forgot to ask jurors, in the end we managed to find four.”
Except for some corona problems, a party was built every year, which always lasts a full week in Koekange. Nevertheless, Koekange always keeps up with the times and has never hesitated to get rid of traditions. There was always a fair on Wednesday, but after corona things changed. “Wednesday couldn’t go out,” board member Christina Tijmens looks back. Koekange wanted something different and that became the Fair on Sunday, a new interpretation with its own organization. “Last year, as a party committee, we provided handyman services, now they can do it all themselves. That’s good, last year it was also a great success.
S bull’s eye
The fact that the parade of decorated cars went from Saturday to Thursday also turned out to be a bull’s eye with always a good occupation with many young people as well. On Tuesday evening, a group of young residents of Koekange were found almost distraught on the Koekangerweg near Lake Sultan: they had just picked up a decorated car in Uffelte when the axle of the car snapped on the way. It took some time for help to arrive, the group’s car was temporarily parked in the middle of the cycle path.
It brings Christina Tijmens to the rules regarding the decorated cars: “We are going to look at the participants who say that they build their own cars.” Would it not be useful to also send board members to the Uffelte parade, to see which cars are participating there? “No, not that again. We still have faith in the people,” laughs Tijmens.
A changing picture
With the bicycle puzzle tour on Tuesday evening, with exactly 218 participants, the party got off to a good start. The Obstakelrun for children gave a mixed picture on Wednesday afternoon. While about forty primary school children were running their challenging rounds at the beginning of the afternoon, the most active no less than ten, the secondary school students let it down a bit. First ten, later a few extra teenagers snatched from the fair, crawled through cars and a tube, climbed over hay bales and a scaffolding and kept dry at the well-filled ditch. They did get wet at the storm track. The party committee was able to clean up earlier and that was actually not wrong with Boerenblond’s performance that evening. A full bowl, so everyone has to go full.