Eclectic setlist and a sneaky polonaise make the cantus a highlight of the Eurekaweek

How do you describe the cantus? It’s singing and drinking, but you don’t drink when you sing and you don’t sing when you drink. Only after the band sings the German drinking song Trink, Trink, Brüderlein Trink, and the audience has chanted eins, zwei, drei saufen!, the glass goes to the mouth. That, and the low alcohol percentage of the beer, should calm tempers somewhat.

But partying is allowed this Tuesday night in Ahoy. Because the cantus is one of the classic highlights of the introduction week. For ten years now, Tilburg’s fourteen-member formation TCB Bracchus has been providing an eclectic setlist that thrills the audience. From Guus Meeuwis’ Dutch hits (including the Brabant flag to the song of the same name) to a Queen medley and hits from the sixties, seventies and eighties.

Everyone can just as easily sing along with Hey Jude by the Beatles from 1968 as with Noodgeval by Goldband from 2021. For the Dutch-language song is not shunned, starting with the Dutch national anthem Wilhelmus, so that international students also know what they got into when they registered to study in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, at the tables and in the stands, friendships are forged, songs are sung along at the top of their voices, and everyone seems to follow the rules: no standing on tables, no throwing beer and no polonaise. Well, only a small one then.