Herring festival in the Netherlands

The port of Scheveningen, in the Netherlands, saw thousands of visitors at its annual herring festival.

The festival's also called "little flags day." Its name comes from a local tradition, where colourful flags are placed on the fishing boats, to celebrate the start of the herring fishing season.

Due to Covid, it was cancelled for two years. But in 2022, it attracted more than 200,000 visitors.

One worker at the fish market, Arthem, really loves sharing the local tradition with visitors.

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."

Traditionally, herring are stored in salt. Before eating them, they're mixed with onions, then eaten, head to tail.

Here's a first time visitor to the festival, Thilo.

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."

This local tradition has grown into a huge annual festival, which attracts many tourists, who come to celebrate the long fishing culture in the region. After the festival ends, the herring season goes on until October. The season begins again the following May, when the herring reach the right size.

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