The statue of Vincent van Gogh from Assen appeared in Vledder on New Year’s Eve. The Grote Kijker from Ten Boer ended up in Boijl, the Waaiboei from Nieuw Statenzijl in Drachten. For the entrance sign of Safari Park de Beekse Bergen you have to go to Zorgvlied and the seven concrete heads of the municipality of Westerkwartier ended up in Doezum. What drives the New Year’s Eve associations? “We never pick something out randomly.”
New Year’s Eve club De Oliebol in Vledder is up for a cool stunt, an exuberant party or spectacular fireworks show. But they are just as likely to organize senior bingo or visit people who are in hospital between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
“We love conviviality and fun, but we also pay attention to the elderly, children and the sick,” says spokesperson and board member Tim de Rooij of De Oliebol. He comes from Vledder and has been a member of the New Year’s Eve club since he was 18.
Unmarried men
A club with only single (young) men, almost ninety in number. That doesn’t sound emancipated, but according to De Rooij it doesn’t cause any hassle in the village. “That’s how the tradition started. Different times, so to speak. Once you are married, you are no longer allowed to be a member of De Oliebol. This also ensures a healthy flow. And no, I don’t have any wedding plans yet, haha.”
The idea for a local New Year’s Eve club was born during a birthday party on Christmas Day 1994. Since then, De Oliebol has been making itself heard on a regular basis. Especially with striking stunts, often with a current link, which are proudly presented to the village of Vledder and the hamlet of Doldersum.
This year the club performed a stunt by bringing the meter-high statue of Vincent van Gogh from Assen. Last year the association caused a stir with the disappearance of three naval heroes from Farmsum. The statues, almost four meters high and weighing more than 1,200 kilos each, were ‘stolen’ in broad daylight. While passersby passed quietly, the images were loaded onto trailers. “I personally look back on that with great pleasure,” says De Rooij.
World news
Other well-known stunts were the removal of the All You Need Is Love caravan (1997), Ellert and Brammert (2008) and two giant dinosaurs from Zwolle (2019). With the theft of the Starfighter from the museum of Deelen Air Base, De Oliebol even made world news.
The disappearance of the 10 meter long and weighing 600 kilo scale model was picked up ‘out of nowhere’ by the American news channel CNN and spread around the world. “That made a lot of difference at the time.”
Good preparation is essential, De Rooij agrees. “If we have something striking in mind, we carefully check whether we can steal the object safely and carefully, without causing damage. Because those are the most important conditions. It must be able to be returned to its place safely and undamaged. If we’re not sure about that, we won’t do it.”
More than stunts
Over time, the New Year’s Eve association in Vledder has nevertheless become quite adept at it, as evidenced by the stunts. Yet it is a challenge every year to find a new ‘victim’. “After a successful stunt, the question is always what we will do next time. But somehow we always find something new. We take a good look around during the year.”
The stunts generate the most attention, but De Oliebol does more. A number of activities have been fixed, such as the bingo afternoon for people over 60, the treasure hunt for the golden oliebol, gifts for other associations, the fireworks show on New Year’s Eve and the party evening in the De Tippe village hall.
Furthermore, there is an annual barbecue for the ‘club of 50’, a group of people who, in a personal capacity or as a company, support the New Year’s Eve association with 50 euros annually. “The social involvement of our club is highly appreciated in the village. We try to provide something fun and entertainment for everyone.”
The Doezumer New Year’s Eve Team (DOP) from Doezum, founded in 1992, also holds activities for young and old during the last days of the year. With its stunts, the New Year’s Eve crew often draws attention to a local social development, threat or wish.
This year the club robbed the seven concrete heads from the municipality of Westerkwartier made by artist B. Lothar Frieling that had been waiting for a place for years. “The DOP decided to give the municipality a helping hand and quickly placed them in our beautiful Doezum,” said chairman Jorn Broersma.
Current affairs
New Year’s Eve association Tied Zat from Zorgvlied and the surrounding area also organizes several activities every year, although it is also best known for its stunts. “Once our summer activities are over, we will think about this in the autumn,” says secretary Dominique Veenstra. “We look to see if there are national or regional issues that we can do something with. A stunt always has to do with current events. We never search random something out.”
At 28, Veenstra, who has been a member for ten years, now belongs to the older guard of Tied Zat. In her opinion, the best stunt is the first one she was involved in, in 2013. “Then we borrowed the two fire engines from Diever as a protest against the closure of that fire station that year.”
Just before New Year’s Eve, both cars disappeared, as they were no longer in use. “How were we able to take them with us? We said at the time that we had allowed ourselves to be locked in the barracks after a party. I’ll leave it open as to how it really happened. At the unveiling on New Year’s night, everyone was very surprised and surprised,” he reflects.
Dove of Peace and Bartje
The resident of Wateren consistently speaks about ‘borrowing’ objects and things. “It’s not stealing; what we take with us always comes back. We always first take photos at the location where it is located to record what it looks like and is attached. We want to return what we take back in the same condition and always hope for appreciation from the owner and that it generates some positive publicity.”
A selection of the stunts of the association founded in 1997? Removing the large white letters of Lelystad Airport from the site, except for the S, the T, the O and the P, so that STOP remained (2017). Two years earlier, members of the association brought the statue of a silver dove of peace from Tynaarlo. Bartje also once disappeared from his pedestal in Assen (2003). That cost Tied Zat a thousand euros in repair costs. The association was not allowed to put the statue back itself, so the municipality of Assen hired a company.
“Have we ever been caught taking something away? In Oosterhesselen we took the statue De Hunetafel from the village green late in the evening in 2014. Suddenly a mother and daughter with a dog walked by. They greeted us, but said nothing else,” says Veenstra. “Then it was exciting for us to see whether it would leak in the following days, but it turned out that no alarm had been raised.” In fact; Many Hesselers did not even notice that their statue was gone.
In broad daylight
Last year, Tied Zat used the same tactics as De Oliebol in Farmsum: in broad daylight, the members removed the statue of a captured dragon from the village green in Norg. “We had to use a large machine to take the image with us and we thought: that makes way too much noise at night. There is a good chance that someone will hear it in the middle of the village.” The members put on orange work jackets, pretend to be crazy and remove the statue from the pedestal. “There were plenty of people on the street, but no one asked questions. That was quite funny.”
This year the club ‘borrowed’ the entrance sign from the Beekse Bergen. “In that park you have to comply with all kinds of rules. That should be the case with us in nature too.”
She can understand that an organization sometimes reports a theft. “Sometimes something really has to be returned before January 1. Or there are major interests at play. The New Year’s Eve club in Donkerbroek had once stolen a suit from Max Verstappen, but it had to be used in a Red Bull media campaign, which involved a very large amount of money. The sponsor then called all New Year’s Eve associations and explained the major financial consequences if the suit was not returned before January 1. Then the association brought it back earlier.”
Why stunts?
In their book Midwinter traditions in Drenthe historian Henk Nijkeuter and writer Abel Darwinkel link the New Year’s Eve stunts, which have been performed for more than thirty years, to the much older custom of ‘drag’. Nijkeuter suspects that its origin lies in the Germanic period, before the year 800. “People then believed that the supreme god Wodan returned to earth during this period. He took everything that was loose or standing around your house. By the way, towing has nothing to do with vandalism. In my hometown of Gieten, residents’ belongings were brought to the village green and they could pick them up there again on New Year’s Day. Dragging and stunting is about breaking through hierarchical structures. Shake things up a bit in the old year before starting the new one with a clean slate.”