The Gent Festival started on saturday, kicking off with a parade through the city centre. The streets are PACKED as there are around 2 million extra people here at the moment!!
During the parade, these guys in white shirts were selling nooses. That's amusing even if you don't know what it means. I think I posted a while back about the nooses and what they mean for the people of Gent, but here's a recap; Charles V who became a Roman Emperor and was also the King of Spain, was born in Gent. He punished the citizens of Gent in 1539 after they revolted against him, making the city's nobles to walk in front of him barefoot with nooses around their necks. Since this incident, the people of Gent have been called "Stroppendragers" (noose bearers). They still wear the nooses in official parades and events today.
I'm not sure if this has cultural significance here but thought it was an interesting role-reversal!!Check out this awesome 360º view of Graslei from the bridge; http://www.visitonweb.com/wikipedia/gent-graslei-uk.html and then imagine it packed out with lights and music stages, and FULL of people!!
Something like this....
Then on sunday evening there was a fireworks display on the Watersportslaan (a long water sports lane used for rowing etc). It was really neat as there was great music played with the fireworks, and it was a choreographed show including cherry pickers and really interesting fireworks. There were some really interesting firework techniques used that I'd never come across before - ones that stayed lit up in the sky for ages and looked like fireflies, others that looked like a disturbed nest of bugs, and big exploding ones that were like a pie chart of different colours. It was really neat.
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