When a heavy shower came down, dealers and visitors took shelter in the Ebbinge tent, which was bigger this year thanks to the Boermarke, Rolde’s traditional farmers’ association. Deals were struck there too with handjeklap, the old way of bargaining by slapping hands. The agricultural and gardening fair stood among the horses, and there were also a goods market, the funfair and horse shows. In the party tent, the acts included Partyband Heer en Meester and Mark Doldersum.
‘Rieks zien pries’ (Rieks’s prize), awarded every year in memory of the Rolde vet Rieks Hatzmann for the most striking horse at the market, went this time to a five-year-old Appaloosa mare from Kollumerzwaag.
The market day closed a week of festivities that began on Thursday 4 September with the theme ‘Een Roldermarkt vol PaardenKracht’ (a Roldermarkt full of horsepower). On that first evening, Ter Land, Ter Zee en Op de Brink was on the programme for the first time. The 27 teams, many of them on decorated home-made bikes, had to get across a course on the Brink and reach the bell at the end, and according to the organiser, OVVR, some ended up in the water tank after just two metres. Luc Oosting of Team Techniko was fastest, in 3.92 seconds.
On Saturday evening a parade of floats made its way through the village for the first time in ten years, to mark the market’s 240th anniversary. Five neighbourhood associations had built a float, and the Jan Thiesschool took part with a TT float because the TT, the motorcycle race in Assen, is a hundred years old this year. The business parade followed straight afterwards.
The neighbourhood associations from the former municipality of Rolde competed all week for the Roldermarktbokaal, the fair’s trophy, with points from the multi-event contest and the lip-sync show. Schepersgoorn won the lip-sync show on Sunday evening with Dark Horse by Katy Perry, but the trophy went to the Steenackershoek, which scored one point more than De Hoorns. De Naobers came third.