And also not unimportant: the cheese on the market is no longer traded. “The real trade stopped about 25 to 30 years ago,” says cheese father Willem Borst. Due to the automation and the huge supermarket groups of today, the practical use of the cheese market was over.
Weighing, the hand clap and wearing the cheese carrier guild of today is pure for the show. “You could call it a play, but that sounds a bit irreverent,” says Borst. “We do everything according to tradition. It is really an honorable job.”
Because there is no longer any action, the cheese market is nowadays only a tourist attraction. But when there was still acting, the market also attracted a large audience, says Borst. “In the 50s and 60s it was already very busy on Waagplein. Even then it was already a sight.”
Cheese market is part of Alkmaar’s identity
Historian Tervoort does not mind that the cheese market is now being re -enacted. “It is an important part of our identity. Alkmaar has always been the cheese city. The cheese market is of great value on a cultural level, and of course of course indispensable for tourism.”
He even recommends purebred Alkmaarders, who have never visited the market, to go once. “Many Alkmaarders avoid the city center on Friday morning because of the crowds. Before I became a city guide, I never got there myself. That’s the funny one: every Alkmaarder knows the cheese market, but almost no one goes there. Yet everyone should see it. It belongs to the city and our identity.”