Fairground child Pascal (12) is the youngest operator with his own attraction: 'Brothers were also exempted from compulsory education'

It is sunny at the fair in Beverwijk. The smell of candy floss fills the rows between the flickering lights. A child screams in the breakdance. Sensation! A jet of water explodes from the Aqua Blasta, a game in which visitors have to extinguish fires with a huge jet from a water pistol. The attraction is the pride of 12-year-old Pascal de Poorter, the youngest fairground operator in the Netherlands.