The Van Maerlantlyceum had an extra special gala on Tuesday evening. Not only this year’s exam candidates, but also the final years of the cancelled corona editions were welcome. The Eindhoven high school was already very enthusiastic about the party preceding the results. “It promised to be a fantastic evening”.
Gala head organiser Erwin van Oudenhoven remembers it well from previous years; the cancellation of the gala, twice. Corona threw a spanner in the works. “Super sour, of course”, he says. “Last year everything was as good as arranged, but we ended up in lockdown in the same week.”
It is an experience where students usually arrive in couples in luxury cars driven by a chauffeur, so that there is a long procession in each village or town every year. Evening dress in style and entering the venue on a red carpet complete the gala. According to Van Oudenhoven, the festive exam closing ceremony is indispensable.”The fantastic gala memory is just part of it. That’s how you really round off your time at secondary school”.
Full of positivity
According to Van Oudenhoven, some 450 examinees celebrated the final party, along with 158 former students. The response was super nice, he says. “Many former students are now studying, so they had exams or another reason not to join, but in general they were very happy with the initiative”.
According to the organiser, it is therefore not difficult to have enthusiastic pupils. “It often happens by itself. Because the year classes are not very different from each other, they met enough acquaintances, which made it extra fun of course”.
Historical
Van Oudenhoven has been organising the gala for eighteen years, but cannot deny that this edition was the most unique. “Indeed, it was a historic happening. It was the students’ evening, nobody can take that away from them anymore”.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
