It was a kind of Eurovision Song Contest festival for wind bands. That is the best way to describe the Knotskraker Festival. Between 1992 and 2007, carnival bands from the province competed against each other every year in Vlijmen. A jury decided who was the best. There is good news for those who think back to this event with nostalgia. Some of the songs are now on Spotify.
This involves a digitization of the CDs that were released annually, with eleven songs from each year. The participants in the Knotskrakerfestival came from all over the province, says record producer Ad Kraamer, who was closely involved in the organization, in Brabant Today.
“It is a fantastic piece of Brabant culture. We must cherish that. Every village or city where a song festival was held was allowed to delegate the number 1. We recorded a CD with the eleven best participants. I have now digitized it and put it on Spotify put.”
Historically, every region in Brabant has its own typical style, sound and composition of a wind orchestra. There is a difference between a band from Boxmeer or Roosendaal, says Kraamer. “That lies in the use of instruments and arrangements. Den Bosch, for example, is known for a thump, because those bands there use a lot of brass.”
André van Duin
The name Ad Kraamer may not mean much to people. But we all know his hits. For example, he worked with André van Duin for years and, as a music producer, he was partly responsible for carnival hits such as ‘Paard in de Gang’, ‘Willempie’, and ”K Heb hele grote huiskoole’.
Kraamer is less pleased with the current carnival hits. “We used to play live with wind instruments. Nowadays more is recorded with computers and you often fall into the same sound.”
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From ‘Tatata’ to ‘Horse in the hallway’, Ad worked with André van Duin