Dutch Day Out draws in thousands

Thousands gathered under a windmill in Foxton on Saturday to celebrate everything Dutch.

The Big Dutch Day Out is held annually at the town’s Te Awahou Riverside Cultural Park, celebrating Dutch culture and Aotearoa’s connection to the Netherlands.

And this year’s edition was a “fantastic day”, Oranjehof Dutch Connection Centre co-chairperson Arjan van der Boon said, estimating that a crowd of 5000 people turned up.

“I think we’ve been growing every year for the last few years ... I think the reputation is spreading,” van der Boon said.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands’ ambassador to New Zealand Ard van der Vorst was in Foxton on Saturday to kick off this year’s Dutch Week, which aims to enhance the visibility of Dutch communities across the motu.

“There was lots of Dutch people, but also you see all kinds of people come,” van der Boon said.

At the centre of the cultural park sits a 17th-century-style windmill, De Molen. An art contest this year featured artists from Auckland to Dunedin, whose works incorporated their own whakapapa with De Molen.

“We asked people throughout the region, throughout the country, to create a picture of De Molen, but combined with their own ethnic origins. So we had a Thai nāga dragon next to the windmill, we had Scottish thistle flowers, we had a kiwi, lots of kiwis,” van der Boon said.

Traditional Dutch food, clog throwing, stilt walking, and a 19th-century Dutch street organ were all on show, along with a large model of the ship that brought Abel Tasman to Aotearoa in 1642.

Van der Boon said it took Cambridge man Eric Hill four years to make the 2m-by2m replica of De Heemskerck, “a big flying Dutchman, we call it,” which now called the Oranjehof Dutch Connection Centre in Foxton home.

“People loved it, especially hearing his story, and the ambassador of course praised him for gifting that to the Dutch community,” van der Boon said.

Around 30 to 40 volunteers on the day helped out across the heritage park’s facilities, which reflected the Manawatū town’s enthusiasm for the event, van der Boon said.

“And not all our volunteers are Dutch, either ... it’s just people in Foxton that love their windmill, and they want to contribute,” he said.

PHOTOS: WARWICK SMITH/MANAWATŪ STANDARD Thousands gathered on Saturday at Te Awahou Riverside Cultural Park in Foxton, which features a 17th-century-style Dutch windmill. Inset, Hadley Judd, 13, and sister Kobie Judd, 10, from Foxton Beach, enjoy the view from the balcony of De Molen.

Dutch ambassador to New Zealand Ard van der Vorst officially opens The Big Dutch Day Out.