In Waoterrijk they do their very best to put on a beautiful carnival. No expense is spared. Yet young people from Nuland flock to Oeteldonk. Minister of Youth Affairs Harold van Nistelrooij is not concerned about it: “They will all come back.” And that also applies to his own daughter Yanniek.
Harold and Yanniek are together in the De Meent community center, where the public carnival is celebrated in Nuland. Harold has been busy preparing for weeks. This Thursday the community center will be dressed in blue and yellow.
His 18-year-old daughter Yanniek comes to take a look and is wearing her Oeteldonk carnival costume with the recognizable red, white and yellow scarf. She starts her first carnival evening on Thursday evening. Not in Nuland but in the Korte Putstraat in Den Bosch.
“Children need to spread their wings”
Yanniek: “I go to Oeteldonk because there is a lot of youth there. Also from Breda, where I study. I enjoy celebrating Carnival with others. I also want to look further than just Nuland.”
Her father Harold is not at all concerned about his daughter going to Oeteldonk. He also makes no effort to keep his daughter here during carnival. “Even if I wanted to, it wouldn’t work. It is normal that at some point they go their own way during carnival. Children must spread their wings and find their own way. They also don’t go on holiday with mom and dad forever. That’s very normal. And we see most of them come back when they are older. They are always welcome.”
Yanniek sees that too. The Oeteldonk carnival is for the young, she thinks: “I think that once I get older, I will come back to Nuland. Now she celebrates carnival in Den Bosch every day. She only makes an exception for the parade in Nuland.
“I always find the parade fun. I don’t skip it, I’m always there on Sundays.” Then Yanniek also exchanges her Oeteldonk colors for the blue-yellow of Waoterrijk: “You get a bit of strange looks if you wear red-white-yellow during carnival here in Nuland.”
“We do a lot to keep carnival alive in Nuland”
Harold does not think that carnival in Nuland will cease to exist if the young people go to Oeteldonk. “No, we do a lot to keep carnival alive in Nuland and we are not going to copy what they do in Den Bosch. We have our own identity. We have a public carnival that everyone can participate in. For children, the disabled, for the elderly. And we don’t see it declining at all.”
2024-02-08 20:00:44
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