By Jhr. mr. Alexander W. Beelaerts van Blokland, Justice (Judge) in the Court of Appeal and Special Advisor International Affairs of the Municipality of The Hague.
Before the summer holidays 2014 will start in July, The Hague offers all of us a lot of nice events in June. Too many to mention them all, but I will chose some you will prabably like.
Those who know about Dutch history will know that Indonesia was a Dutch colony until after World War II, since when a lot of inhabitants of that hugue Asian country emigrated to The Netherlands, especially to The Hague. The expression ‘The Hague is the widow of the former Dutch East Indies’ was born then. At the moment the annual Tong Tong Festival is running at the Malieveld. Nice for those who want to ‘taste’ the previous three centuries of Dutch Asia that will never come back again.
The world looks forward to the World Cup football (soccer) that will start in June in Brasil, but The Hague has at the moment its own World Cups: in field hockey, men and ladies. Participants are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, China, England, Germany, India, Korea, Malaysia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and the United States of America. Around Kyocera Stadium every night the culture, food, drinks etc. of one of the the participating countries –daily changing -will have special attention.
On Thursday June 12th the ‘new Dutch herring’ (a sea fish) will ‘arrive’ in Scheveningen, which will be celebrated then and the days after (Saturday June 14th: ‘Vlaggetjesdag’) everywhere in and around Scheveningen. The Dutch eat it raw and please try to do as the Dutch do: if not immediately, you probably will find it delicious as well after some time !
The King will come to The Hague in June twice: for the opening of the yearly Sculptures Exposition, this year called ‘Grandeur’ (French sculptors), in the Kloosterkerk church on Tuesday June 17th and for the Grand Opening of the renewed and enlarged Mauritshuis Museum –small but world famous – on Friday June 27th.
And please don’t forget Festival Classique: many beautiful concerts in the open air in the centre, around –and even on ! – the Hofvijver, which is the pond next to the Binnenhof (parliament).
Enjoy Jolly June in The Hague !
