The “Epicurists”, recognisable by their trademark cow-print waistcoats, freely admitted that they hadn’t been motivated by a sudden burst of progressive and feminist social critique, alcohol-fuelled or otherwise. One of their stated criteria for the princess was “looks that make every man fall head over heels”, as they unabashedly put it. Coincidentally or not, the accompanying photo shows the newly crowned Princess Debbie the First looking rather uncomfortable as she faces the singing members of Epicurus’s Council of Four (the article doesn’t explain why four rather than the traditional eleven).
A bit dull
No, their main goal was to wind up the Tempeleers, the city’s largest Carnaval association. Traditionally, each year the Tempeleers selected the city’s official “Prince Carnaval”, a man from a particular social background – upper middle class, “one of the boys”, respectable. The year 2000 was no exception, despite ongoing debate in the local media about diversifying the tradition. When the mask came off, the prince was revealed to be Peter the Second: a white, married police commissioner in his early forties. “Not a woman, not a gay man, not a person of colour”, Observant noted alongside his photo in February 2000.
For Epicurus, it was reason enough to take a jab at the Tempeleers and to poke fun at Maastricht locals who had “debated the matter extensively in the press”. Enter thirty-year-old Debbie Essers, “Café C’est la Vie’s well-known bartender”, a born-and-bred Maastricht local (presumably to avoid straying too far from Tempeleers tradition) and “a familiar face in the student scene”.
Reality had other plans
According to Observant, Princess Debbie’s crowning was supposed to mark the beginning of “a long and rich history of Carnaval princesses”. It was a noble ambition, but reality had other plans. Maastricht’s Carnaval is still ruled exclusively by white, male city princes, and although Epicurus is still around, Debbie remains the city’s first and only Princess Carnaval.