Nieuwmunster has fun rolling BK straw bales

The idea for the separate folk sport arose by chance. The village council decorated the church square and the nativity scene with straw for Christmas. Before that, they rolled the hay bales through the village and that eventually led to the competition. The teams have to push the 200 kilo straw bale over a track as quickly as possible. The young force of the KLJ Oostende-Houtave is the fastest of the fourteen teams. They win by one second.

Former coastal municipality

Nieuwmunster, part of Zuienkerke, has only 300 inhabitants. The competition is the highlight of the Bartholomew celebrations. The territory used to be on the North Sea. “Nieuwmunster had a stretch of coast, almost a kilometer, between De Haan and Wenduine,” says Noël Delaere of the party committee in the agricultural village.