Born in a dark time, now a merry party: the story of the evening 4 days

‘A jar of fat’. That classic song was sung on Tuesday evening in Vlagtwedde, in Musselkanaal, in Noordbroek. The evening4daagse started in those villages. Probably the first in a whole series that will be run in other towns and cities in Groningen in the coming weeks.

Playground associations

But not only in Groningen. Nearly 500 evening four days are held throughout the country by walking associations, playground associations and foundations. “By far the most in May and June,” says Mariëlle Vissers, spokeswoman for the Koninklijke Wandelbond Nederland (KWbN). That number is fairly stable. A number of them have disappeared during the corona crisis, but new ones have also been added.

Vissers cannot say how many people will participate in total this year. “But there have been years when half a million people participated. Most of the walkers are children. It’s a happy children’s party.”

In the spring of 1940

How different it was during the very first evening 4 days. They were run in the spring of 1940. In a gloomy, threatening period in which the Second World War was already raging elsewhere and many Dutch people feared a German invasion. The Dutch soldiers were mobilized. Also those who annually organized the great Four Days Marches of Nijmegen (since 1909 to improve fitness). They didn’t have time for it anymore.

The members of the Stichts-Gooise Wandelsportbond would still like a multi-day walking and therefore they set up the first evening 4 days. They were run in Bussum, Utrecht and Amersfoort. Other cities and towns followed suit. Under the German occupation, those marches, in which mainly adults took part, were banned.

Firm foothold

,,After the liberation, the evening-4-days returned, even then the participants were mainly adults”, says Vissers. The walking festival also gained a foothold in the province of Groningen. The Four Days Marches of Winschoten, for example, the largest in Groningen with 4000 to 5000 participants, had its first edition a few years after the German capitulation.

Over the years, the number of schoolchildren who took part grew steadily. For all those boys and girls, the festival was and is a kind of warm-up for the summer holidays. Walk briskly for 5 or 10 kilometers three evenings, then the evening of the entry with music, flowers and the medal. And then a few more weeks until the last day of school.

About 1000 participants

Vlagtwedde didn’t have an evening4daagse for a long time. The children of that village had to move to Winschoten, for example. More than 10 years ago, some residents decided to put an end to this situation. ,,So we have our 13th edition this week”, says chairman Coba Lubben of the organizing foundation. ,,We have about 1000 participants, students and children, from Vlagtwedde and from villages in the area. The great thing about our four days is that the walkers can walk through nature every evening.”

The evening4daagse is very much alive at both schools in the village. By far the majority of the 120 pupils from the public primary school De Clockeslach participate and many children from the Christian primary school De Zaaier also walk their kilometres. The parents of both schools arrange the participation and supervise the children.

Anneke Hidding, director of De Zaaier, participates as a parent. “Three of my children attend De Loopplank school in Blijham and I follow along with that school. Ten kilometres, with the group in which my daughter Laure walks along.” Hidding (40) loves the evening4daagse and participated in Winschoten as a child. “I enjoy walking through nature here. Yes, it’s a real walking party.”