1 & 2 september 2024
1 & 2 september 2024
Vinyl refers to the material of which the sound carriers of the gramophone are made. The float consists of five antique gramophones with the horns still placed on top of the players. The cases are richly decorated with woodcarvings and appear to be straight from the roaring twenties. And that is exactly the vibe that the designers of De Lent want to project.
“The sound has to be shrill like that of an old gramophone. And obviously we’re going to hear the crackle of the needle on the vinyl. The sound will come exclusively from the horns, so that will be the only place where sound boxes will be installed.”
“A jazz band will play the music from the twentieth century twenties from inside three of the five gramophone cases. The musicians will be revealed alternately and case by case and they will all contribute their own part of the music that will sound from the horns above them. The cranks and needles will move like those of real gramophones. The vinyl records will be free of flowers, except for the circular label in the centre. We haven’t made a decision yet on what material we are going to use for the vinyl.”
The horns of old gramophones haven’t always been copper coloured, sometimes they were painted very colourful. “We will decorate the interior of the horns with plenty of floral and leaf patterns as well. Those colours will provide a good contrast with the woody colours we are going to use on the cases.”
The designers have noticed that the people of De Lent are really into this design. “We still have a construction challenge where the horns are concerned. We would like to see them hang freely like they do with a real gramophone. It will be exciting to see if that will work, but we have the right people to tackle that job. We’re sure that it will all work out.”
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Vinyl is the first design for Krista Verstralen (31), Mats van Hasselt (20) and Bjorn de Graauw (28). Between 2019 and 2022 Krista participated in the corso academy, which was extra-long due to Covid-19, and managed to finish as the winner. She started out with an idea all by herself but contacted Mats and Bjorn in December in order to create a design with the two of them. Krista works at a jewellery store, Mats is an interior designer and Bjorn works at a tree nursery. Bjorn has been helping with the corso for ten years but he grew up celebrating carnival in Prinsenbeek, where he still helps out every year with the construction of floats.
Original Dutch text: Ronald van Loon
Translation: Bas Booij
Photo: Sanne Koevoets
Hamlet De Lent
www.buurtschapdelent.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.