There’s a storm in Pietland. Sinterklaas parades in Drenthe receive more registrations from Piets this year compared to previous years. In Emmen the organization therefore had to decide to introduce a ‘Pieten stop’.
“We always house Sinterklaas in the Pietenhuis and we had to ask Sinterklaas to bring fewer Pieten this year because too many came,” says Mirthe Hartkamp, chairman of the Sinterklaas Emmen foundation. “We just don’t have enough beds for that. So we had to disappoint a number of little ones.”
They are also scaling up considerably this year at the entry into the Marsdijk district in Assen. With 340 Petes, that is a hundred more than last year. According to the organization, this is the maximum number of Petes that is possible.
In Erica they mainly have a lot of young people at the parade this year. That was different five years ago, when the organization had difficulty finding enough helpers. That has been going well in recent years. The Young Piets ensure innovation of the Sinterklaas celebration.
150 Piets are participating in today’s arrival in Emmen. According to Hartkamp, the Sinterklaas celebration in Emmen is just as bad as before corona. “We notice that the whole Sinterklaas party is picking up. The vibe is there again,” says Hartkamp. “We’re gaining some ground again at Christmas so that’s good.”
The arrival itself was also well attended. For a while it seemed like the weather was throwing a spanner in the works, but in the end it wasn’t too bad.
View the images of the arrival in Emmen below: