6 & 7 september 2026
6 & 7 september 2026
This time, the Rijsbergen hamlet was the first to unveil its design. Which is easy enough, of course, when you’ve known what you’re building for over a year already.
The first ideas emerged back in September 2024. Last year the hamlet wasn’t quite ready to commit, because it would be a fairly demanding technical job. But this time all the signals were green, and Kiki and Gijs could get to work with their fellow hamlet members.
The design looks monumental, but that’s deceptive. The float will feature twenty-four by ten panels, or grids, on both sides. In the middle of each of those 480 panels sit two blades. Those 960 blades are driven by hundreds of small motors, producing a range of patterns that shift between chaotic and, at other moments, wholly harmonious. The movements are set to music, or rather, the music came first, and the movement followed. All of it is controlled by a single computer program.
Rijsbergen can now get down to business: production work this year. Because the designers have been living with this idea for so long, a great deal of groundwork has already been done. Most of the mill units are made from 3D-printed parts, which will be packaged per mill in a bag, complete with an Ikea-style instruction sheet. You grab a bag and piece it all together. A child could do it. Add to that the 960 blades, all of which need to be covered in dahlia petals, and Rijsbergen will effectively become one big assembly hall.
“I do love a crazy idea!” says Gijs with a broad smile. The stylists are getting a bit less to sink their teeth into this year, since the challenges facing them aren’t as big as in other years. But they’ll no doubt get their chance again next year.
At the Strawberry Festival, you’ll search in vain for a scale model of this geometric dance. Everything will be visible on a screen, however: a slightly curved red wall with white blades, constantly shifting into new patterns.
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Kiki Beekers (34) works in online marketing. This is her third design. Gijs van den Bemd (36), a digital construction consultant, is designing for the fifth time. The two of them joined the Rijsbergen hamlet twenty years ago and are now designing together for the first time.
Original Dutch Text: Ton Biemans
Translation: Saskia Molema
Photo: Jeanne van Oosterhout
Hamlet Rijsbergen
www.buurtschaprijsbergen.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.