The 64th Brabantsedag in Heeze in 2023 will have the theme ‘Eureka!’. The theme was presented on Thursday evening 10 November during a well-attended float
builders’ meeting in village hall ‘t Perron.
Using the Greek mathematician Archimedes’s exclamation Eureka! (I’ve got it!), the theme refers to discoveries and/or inventions. The sixteen float groups will search for a discovery by a Brabander or an invention in Brabant; both the Dutch and Belgian parts of the former Duchy of Brabant.
Brains
The wagon groups will come up with an invention and its discoverer. Think, for example, of Jean Neuhaus who invented the Belgian praline or Cas Arts (Haps), the inventor of the potato harvester. Different this year is the time period for the theme; there is no starting year and groups may choose up to and including 1973, i.e. 50 years before the Brabant Day in 2023.
During the theatre parade on Sunday 27 August 2023, the groups will show with their immense floats, technology and play what the invention meant and what it meant to the world, in a translation with deeper meaning.
A tradition of innovation
Frank van Lierop, head of the Theme Committee, explains: “In 2011, the Brainport region around Eindhoven and Helmond was named the smartest region in the world. The jury report praised the example of a new way of thinking about cooperation and regional development in a global competition of technological innovation. Looking back at our past, genius inventions and brilliant theories were created within the borders of the Duchy of Brabant. There are also born Brabanders who have made themselves immortal somewhere in the world through brilliant moments. What binds them is their Eureka! moment.”
Total theatre
It is up to the float groups to be inspired by these inventions, discoveries or theories and come up with brilliant translations and inventions of their own. The theatre parade on the last Sunday of August 2023 will prove why Brainport – then and now – was and is one of the smartest regions in the world. The result will be a procession of total theatre with original designs and bold technology, telling a complete story in a few minutes.
Source: Press Release Brabantse Dag
