Fair goes ahead despite fatal lightning strike

28 August 2006

AMSTERDAM — Fair goers in the Gelderland town of Vorden observed a minute of silence on Saturday for the two people killed by lightning in the town’s graveyard the day before.

The Brocante market and Castle Fair were less busy than previously anticipated as many locals decided to stay away from the festivities, organiser Judith Buter said.

A 59-year-old former alderman and a 14-year-old girl died on Friday when a bolt of lightning struck a tree in the graveyard. They were members of the local music corps ‘Sursum Corda’. The accident took place during a musical tribute at the funeral of a deceased band member.

Three of the other musicians were also injured. Two of them, a 16-year-old girl and a 37-year-old man, were released from hospital on Saturday. A 71-year-old man was still being treated in hospital on Saturday.

The organisers of the Brocante Market, which was being held for the first time, decided to go ahead with it. “Naturally there is a double feeling: the tragedy impacts on the atmosphere. But most of the participants of this market don’t come from the town.”

The Castle Fair committee discussed what to do with the municipal authority. “In fact it was clear straight away that the fair had to go ahead,” said Sigrid Vink. “Although we would have respected it if the local council wanted us to cancel the event, we realised that the stand holders from the town, although deeply affected, still thought it was right to proceed.”

At 3pm, 24 hours after the fatal lightning strike, the music stopped at both events and those attending observed a minute of silence.

Lightning injured at least 25 people, several of them critically, at an air show and a soccer match in western Germany at the weekend, police there said.

Subject: Dutch news