Herring festival in the Netherlands

This is the "little flags day" festival, in the Netherlands. It's the beginning of the fishing season. It's a tradition. They put little flags on the boats. After the fishing boats return with herring, people celebrate.

The festival stopped for two years because of Covid. In 2022, 200,000 people went.

Arthem works at the fish market. He enjoys watching tourists eat their first herring.

Arthem: "Nice day and people are happy. And we are making herring for them, fresh herring, and give it away so that they can taste it. And the fun is, a lot of people who come here never tasted it before and they like it. So, then we have a good day also."

They keep the herring in salt. Then, they put onions on them and eat them.

It's Thilo's first festival. He's enjoying it.

Thilo: "We're enjoying. We are here from Germany and doing vacation and we heard from this festival here. So, we're coming here. We enjoy it because it's a sunny day and to go out without any mask anything, it's great. We enjoy it."

The festival started as a local tradition. It celebrated the beginning of the herring fishing season. Now, many tourists visit. The season usually ends in October. Then, it starts again in May or June, the following year.

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