Running on skating, smooth bridges and fake snow has now been forbidden, but the Breda Klûntocht is still a thunderous success. For the 29th edition, thousands of partygoers come to the city center on Sunday to celebrate the pre-carnival party. “It rises again,” says the 71-year-old organizer Hetty Pellenaars who has been there from day one. A return and preview of the enormous popularity of this remarkable pub crawl. And about how other villages and towns took over the successful party.
“Look,” says Hetty Pellenaars while she points around the Grote Markt around her. “There were all mats on the floor in the first years that they walked over with skates. They were supplied by a carpet trader. But that real Klûnen soon couldn’t do. Too dangerous, especially if everyone had drunk something.”
And so wooden bridges (too slippery) and fake snow (bad for the environment) in the long run were no longer permitted. But the seed was already planted. The Breda Klûntocht grew into a hugely successful event.
“The stamps on the
“We started in 1996 with three hundred seasoned carnival lovers, but now we are selling six thousand tickets,” continues the 71-year-old Pellenaars, who is chairman of the organizing foundation and also helped with the very first Klûnocht. “This is the maximum, because more is not allowed because of safety.”
The Klûntocht was in the pub in the late 1990s, how could it be otherwise, conceived by the Kees and Margreet van de Kerkhof couple. Eleven cafés on the Grote Markt were named for a day after the Frisian places such as those in the famous Elfstedentocht. The partygoers set off dressed, got a stamp on a special card at each pub and finally reached one at the end clûnkruisje on.
That formula turned out to be like a bomb. The organized pub crawl became bigger and bigger. It was actually disguised carnival like après-ski party. “Call it a pre-carnival party,” says Hetty Pellenaars. “Because we have a parade, a motto and people have to dress up. First, people mainly arrived with skating around their necks and ski suits, but now they dress en masse.”
“It’s hard to say what the success of the Klûntocht is,” she continues. “It is always three weeks before carnival, so then you can already get income there. On Sunday afternoon from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and that is nice and clear: partying, some food and then home.”
“It is now busier and more youth is participating.”
“The biggest difference with the past is really that it is now busier. But everyone is still going off the cafes and there ‘Bonk Bonk’ are still manually set the stamps. We now have twenty -four rather than eleven pubs, otherwise fits differently it no longer. “
“Now more youth is participating,” the Klûn President. “They sometimes also want to hear house music, but that is not the intention. We keep a close eye on that and we just still have carnival chapels.”
Other places have seen the success in Breda and imitate it. For example, Roosendaal, Tilburg, Steenbergen, Chaam and Zevenbergen can somehow be clanded. “In Oss they have been doing it for much longer and we once went to have a look there. We had been working for two years at the time, so I don’t know who was the first. We do it differently here and it doesn’t matter either . “
But here too success may have a shadow side. In addition to the six thousand tickets, there will be thousands of extra visitors. “More and more people are coming from outside,” Hetty explains. “So the rules related to safety have since changed and tightened.”
“I think we should ensure that it is not going to be too busy,” she concludes. “That we are not going down to our own success. After the Corona it was a little less, but now it rises again. It will be very busy this year.”
