Before the carnival commotion can break out, the smallest cafe in Den Bosch must first be completely emptied. The rest of the year, every nook and cranny of ‘t Bonte Palet at the foot of the Sint-Jan is filled with countless goodies. Bartender Diederik de Graaf: “People think it’s a shame to throw some things away and ask if they can stay here. I love it.”
Above the bar hangs a stuffed crocodile with a human finger in its mouth. A little further on are dozens of holy statues, radios, glasses, musical instruments and a snake. If you look around you in the cafe on the Hithamerstraat, you won’t know what you see.
“I have no idea where that crocodile comes from, the animal was already hanging there when the previous owner Willy van Esveldt was still behind the tap here,” says Diederik. “Willy collected all kinds of things and hung it up in his pub. The crocodile has partly ensured that I have my cafe in the international travel guide †Lonely Planet’, Diederik says proudly.
All those remarkable things stand in the way during Carnival. With a large cart they are temporarily stored elsewhere. “The advantage is that all those things are dusted once. That has not happened in the last two years. That is difficult, because if someone bumps against it, dust sometimes falls into his beer,” says Diederik with a laugh. . Fortunately, he gets some help with the annual move, otherwise Diederik would be busy for days.
When most of the stuff is loaded, the cafe is decorated with red-white-yellow streamers. “The whole ritual is now an important part of the carnival tradition,” says Diederik. “It’s a pity that it all has to be back in place next week. It’s crazy. I’ve put two things back in a different place and made it a contest, but no one could discover the difference in this mess.”