Residents of Ter Apel are looking forward to carnival. Such that next week, at the opening of the season, parties will immediately be celebrated.
Chairman Robert Dreier of the carnival association Kloosterwiekers announced this on Friday.
Installation Prince Carnival
“We are breaking with tradition with this adjustment,” he says. “Because normally on November 11, opening day of the season, the Prince Carnival of Ter Apel is installed in a private evening. Now we do this during the day, in public, in the Spiekerhûs building, which can accommodate three hundred people, and then we organize a party at the Moekesgat campsite in the evening. We are doing this because November 11 falls on a Saturday, but also because we want to respond to a need.”
A need that, according to Dreier, is partly a response to the fact that Ter Apel regularly receives negative news coverage because of the asylum center. “Ter Apelers also want to show the other, cheerful side of the village and celebrate together. They also want to show their pride in their village.”
From 2000 to 5000 visitors
The chairman says he hears this in all kinds of ways. “We hear it from the mouths of Ter Apelers. We can see it in the fact that the number of participants in the party at the end of the season increased from 2000 to 5000. In the enthusiasm for our parade and in the many votes we received in the Rabobank regional club campaign.”
The Kloosterwiekers were founded in the 1960s and thus introduced carnival to the border village. The party developed into a great tradition involving the installation of the Prince, but also neighborhood evenings, a Knight’s Evening (on which a socially active Ter Apeler is ‘beaten’ as a knight or lady), visits to schools, the sick and the elderly and the big parade followed by the great celebrations. A parade that attracts tens of thousands of visitors from near and far.
‘Quality has improved’
Karina Schlimback (50) has been participating in the parade for years and recognizes herself in the words of chairman Dreier. She also feels proud of the Ter Apel carnival, of the tradition that it is. “You also see that the participants in the parade pay more attention to the floats and costumes, the quality has improved.”
Schlimback is himself a member of a running group. “This year there are 25 people strong. We will soon start making costumes again.” She is looking forward to February 10, the day of the parade, but she also thinks it is wonderful that the party is already being celebrated on November 11.
Ria Eikens thinks so too. She was made a lady a few years ago and has since been more closely involved in the popular festival. “I also hear that many people are looking forward to carnival and the merriment.”
Exhaust valve
The cheerful and the negative; Wim Eilert experiences both. As a municipal councilor of Westerwolde, he talks a lot about the asylum center and the nuisance caused by some of its residents. But he is also a member of the Kloosterwiekers and has been Prince Carnival for the past three years. “Yes, many Ter Apelers are looking forward to the party. But it is also an outlet, also for me. It’s nice to be cheerful at a time when less pleasant things are happening. In Ter Apel and throughout the world. In my opinion, a reason for the growing popularity is simply the fact that the carnival has really taken root in the village. Several generations grew up with it. This way more people get involved.”
‘Public installation can also become a tradition’
According to Dreier, the first public installation of Prince Carnival (by Mayor Jaap Velema of Westerwolde) does not have to be the last. “If all goes well, we want to do it again if November 11 falls on a Saturday. In Limburg and North Brabant it happens this way every year. Anyone who wants to attend the installation must register via our website www.kloosterwiekers.nl. It contains the entire program of our 59th season.”