Hey neighbours, the countdown is on. Just twenty more sleeps and the shooting kings and queens will parade once again across the OLS festival grounds in Melick. And honestly, the whole village is buzzing.
Shooting guild Sint Andreas won the title last year, which earned them the honour (and the workload) of organising this year’s edition. A year ago, this site was still farmland. Today it is a beautiful green meadow, almost ready to welcome thousands of visitors.
Here is what has already happened:
- 🌾 Local farmers handed over their fields for the event
- 🔌 Over 4 kilometres of electrical cable underground
- 💧 Almost a kilometre of water pipes installed
- ⛺ The big tents go up this Friday
The best part? Volunteers from across the region are rolling up their sleeves. ‘We have a really tight team’, the organisers say. ‘Everyone is pitching in, it is fantastic to be part of.’ A few hectares left to finish, and then Melick gets to show what a village can do together.
The Oud Limburgs Schuttersfeest (OLS) has run since 1907 and travels to a different village each year. The guild that wins the title (called the bok winner) automatically becomes the host for the next edition. That means an entire village is built up by volunteers in just one year, a tradition considered unique in all of Europe.
Source: L1
