Tong Tong Fair

The Tong Tong Fair (formerly Pasar Malam Besar) in The Hague is the biggest Eurasian festival in the world. In 2008 it was held for the 50th time - a golden jubilee with 133,000 visitors. The event is a sensory stimulating blend of cultural festival, exhibition and food fest rolled into one, held in an archipelago of tents and stands.

After decolonisation, almost 300,000 Dutchmen, the majority of mixed descent, had to leave the new republic and start a new life in the Netherlands. Many families had lived in Dutch Indonesia for generations.

In 1959 some of them took the initiative of organising a pasar malam (evening market) in The Hague, with the aim of investing the proceeds in a cultural programme dedicated to Eurasian culture, one of the oldest mixed cultures in the world. This continues to this day.

In the meantime, the Tong Tong Fair has become the biggest Eurasian festival in the world and one of the biggest festivals in the Netherlands. Visitors come from around the country and from the United States and Australia, where Eurasians from the former Dutch East Indies also live today. Over the last few years the number of visitors from Germany, Belgium and France has also been growing.

For more information about this festival, please visit the website of the Tong Tong Fair: www.tongtongfestival.nl.

The festival is organised by the Stichting Tong Tong, Bezuidenhoutseweg 331, 2594 AR The Hague. You can also phone 0900 – 727 2762 (€ 0.45 per minute).