There is no Easter fire in Onstwedde this year. And also elsewhere in the Westerwolde area, the question is whether the Easter bumps will set on fire. This is because Easter fires are more difficult to insure, since the funeral pyre at Scheveningen caused a shower of sparks during New Year’s Eve.
It is therefore still doubtful whether the event in Wedde will take place. “This week it should be clear whether we will find an insurance company,” says director Jan Reit of the organizing Stichting Folklore Wedde. Easter falls on Sunday 9 and Monday 10 April this year.
Large lumps of prunings
Westerwolde was Saxon centuries ago and Easter fires were probably already burning then. Large piles of prunings still go up in flames in many villages on Easter Monday or Easter Monday, watched by hundreds of people.
But since New Year’s Eve 2019, when a bonfire got out of hand on the beach of Scheveningen, something has changed. That is also what spokesperson Bas Kuik of insurer Nationale Nederlanden says. He states that Easter bonfires are certainly still ‘insurable’, but that it is much more closely examined whether the relevant municipality has issued a permit and keeps a close eye on everything.
“We also look at how the organizing foundation or association works,” says Kuik. “And how the safety measures are taken around the event.” The insurer also wants to know how to act if something goes wrong while the fire is burning. “On the basis of all this, we determine whether we insure an Easter bonfire,” says the spokesperson.
No risk of being held responsible
In short, insurance companies have become more cautious. It was therefore not possible to take out insurance in Onstwedde this year. ,,We have asked someone to find an insurer, but he has not found one and that is why we unfortunately had to decide to cancel the event for this year”, says Martin Lantinga, chairman of the organizing Stichting Ocrea. He and his fellow directors do not want to run the risk of being held liable if something goes wrong.
The same scenario threatens in Wedde. There, Reit and his fellow directors managed to find an insurance company in the nick of time last year. “He was willing to insure the Easter fire once, but we haven’t found anyone for this year yet,” says Reit. “If we can’t do that, we’ll cancel it.”
In the hamlet of De Maten near Ter Apel, on the border with Drenthe, the Easter fire burns as always. “We recently received the permit from the municipality of Westerwolde,” says Henk Potze on behalf of the association of Local Interest De Maten. “As an association, we have had comprehensive insurance for all our activities for a long time, including the Easter fire. A specific insurance for the Easter fire, no, we don’t have that.”