section_path: Culture/Annual events
section_name: Annual events
paragraph_text: Annual events
  
  Koningsdag, or King's Day, is held annually on 27 April. It is traditionally celebrated with fairs and flea markets throughout the city. On this day, the colour orange predominates at a funfair (which sells orange cotton candy) and scores of informal street markets. The day is a vrijmarkt (literally "free market"), which means no licence is needed for street vending; children traditionally use this day to sell old unwanted toys. Since King's Day is a national holiday and thus a day off, many people also go out and party on the evening before King's Day. This evening is called King's Night, or Koningnacht in The Hague. The "t" is left out because nacht is pronounced as nach in The Hague. Outdoor concerts throughout the city centre of The Hague draw tens of thousands of visitors every year.
  
  Every third Tuesday in September is Prinsjesdag, or Prince's Day, the opening of the Dutch parliament. On a festive day, children in The Hague are free from school so they may watch the procession of the Golden Coach. The King is driven in the coach from Noordeinde Palace to the Ridderzaal in the Binnenhof. Here, the King reads the Speech from the Throne, written jointly by the Ministers and Secretaries of State. This troonrede outlines the government's plans for the coming year. As the procession returns to the Noordeinde Palace, the road is lined with members of the Dutch Royal Armed Forces, and in the afternoon, the Royal Family appears on the palace balcony to address an adoring and often frenzied public (balkonscène).
  
  Vlaggetjesdag (nl), literally Flag Day, is the annual celebration of the arrival of the year's first herring (Hollandse Nieuwe) in Scheveningen. Hundreds of thousands of people gather in Scheveningen for the festivities, and the fishing boats are decorated specially for the occasion. In addition to the omnipresent herring, this day also features several activities unrelated to fish. In Scheveningen, the first barrel of herring is traditionally sold at an auction on the Thursday preceding the official Vlaggetjesdag, and the proceeds go to charity. Vlaggetjesdag was made official in 1947, although the festive tradition around the beginning of herring season is much older: in the 18th century, the villages along the coast, including Scheveningen, were forbidden to gut the caught herring. Since herring was most appropriate for smoking around September, most fishing boats caught flatfish or round-bodied fish during part of the summer, to avoid a surplus of fresh herring. In July or August, The Hague hosts a series of weekly firework displays by the sea front in Scheveningen, as part of an international fireworks festival and competition.
  
  Tong Tong Fair, formerly Pasar Malam Besar, is the largest festival in the world for Indo culture. Established in 1959, it is one of the oldest festivals and the fourth-largest grand fair in the Netherlands. It is also the annual event with the highest number of paying visitors to The Hague, having consistently attracted more than 100,000 visitors since 1993. The Milan Festival is Europe's biggest Hindustani open-air event, annually held in Zuiderpark. The Hague also hosts several annual music festivals; on the last Sunday in June, the city hosts Parkpop, the largest free open-air pop concert in Europe. Crossing Border Festival, State-X and The Hague Jazz festival are among other music festivals in The Hague.
  
  Crossing Border Festival is an annual festival in November, focusing on music and literature. The first edition took place in 1993.
  
  Movies That Matter is an international film and debate festival about peace and justice that takes place every year at the end of March; nine days filled with screenings of fiction films and documentaries, daily talk-shows, music performances, and exhibitions. The first such event took place in 2006.
  
  Moreover, The Hague International Model United Nations, annually held in January, is a five-day conference held at the World Forum, gathering over 4,000 students from over 200 secondary schools across the globe. It is the oldest and largest high school United Nations simulation in the world. Den Haag Sculptuur is an open-air exhibition of sculptures; the tenth such event, in 2007, celebrated the 400 years of the relationship between the Netherlands and Australia. Since 2009, the city of The Hague also annually presents an LGBTQ+ emancipation award, called the John Blankenstein Award. The exact date of the ceremony varies each year.