Herring festival in the Netherlands

This is the port of Scheveningen in the Netherlands. Thousands of people have come to celebrate the start of the herring fishing season.

The festival's called "little flags day." It's named after a tradition, where people put colourful flags on fishing boats when they catch lots of fish.

The festival was cancelled, for two years, because of Covid. But over 200,000 people attended, in 2022.

Arthem enjoys sharing the local herring culture with tourists.

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."

The herring are usually kept in salt, then they're placed in onions, before being eaten. People eat them head to tail.

It's Thilo's first time at the festival.

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 began as a local celebration, at the start of the herring season. Today, it attracts many tourists. After the festival, the herring season continues until October. It starts again the next May or June, when the herring are usually fat.

View Less