1 & 2 september 2024
1 & 2 september 2024
It will not have gone unnoticed that we live in turbulent times. If it’s not the threat to world peace, then it is the Dutch child benefits scandal or the towering energy prices. This prompted the idea in René to revamp an old design – which hadn’t yet been selected – with a new look. The basic idea remains the same: a donkey pulling a cart. The cart is laden with crates, sacks and boxes. The texts on the sacks and boxes indicate what they contain: the burdens that we are experiencing today. “And they are considerably heavier burdens now than when I did my first design, some six years ago,” says René, “the world is a completely different place.”
Father and son submitted their design to De Berk and were delighted to be granted the honour of designing the float for 2023. The scale model from six years ago had already been thrown out, so they produced a new one.
You won’t find any alternative material on De Berk’s float in September. “We are looking into how we can achieve the effect of hessian using flowers,” says Yoran. We also have ideas about how to create the grey-brown colour of the donkey. There will be a few moving elements on the float. What exactly this will be has not yet been disclosed by the designers. This movement will be carried out manually as well as mechanically. Ludwig Antonissen has been asked to provide the music for the float.
The designers observe that they have already learned from each other. “I far more from him than he from me,” admits Yoran. And he does think it’s a challenge to work at a different hamlet. It’s a good thing to change hamlets now and then according to René: “You always learn something new. Each hamlet has something special to offer in the construction process.”
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For the first time father and son Jochems have designed a float together. In daily life, René (60) is a planner at Janus Vaten in Oosterhout and Yoran (31) is great ape keeper at Antwerp Zoo in Belgium. This is the 28th design by René which has been carried out, for Yoran it is the 3rd.
Original Dutch text: Ton Biemans
Translation: Mary Tine
Photo: Paul Ranft
Hamlet De Berk
www.buurtschap-deberk.nl
This article is brought to you by Corsief. An independent magazine about corsos in general and the Zundert flower parade in particular. The magazine is produced entirely by volunteers, who are all more or less active in the Zundert flower parade world. Corsief is entirely full-colour and appears four times a year.