Redhead Days Festival this August; celebrating the redheads and their unique traits

Treated with hostility in the past and considered witches or vampires in the Middle Ages, redheads in the modern world are thriving and celebrating their unique traits; the Redhead Days Festival marks one of the occasions to embrace the distinctive nature of gingers.

Redhead Days Festival; celebrating the unique traits

Held annually on the last full weekend of August, this year the Redhead Days Festival will take place on August 23-25 in the city centre of Tilburg, the Netherlands. Growing in size every year, the festival anticipates tens of thousands of redheads from more than 80 countries to unite in the world´s largest, oldest, and most spectacular redhead festival.

“The festival is based on three core values: connection, pride, and recognition,” stated the organizers. The festival was founded accidentally by the painter Bart Rouwenhost in 2005. Rouwenhost sought out 15 red-haired models for an exhibition in Asten; with the help of an advertisement in the Brabants Dagblad, 150 redhead models turned up instead. 

Having trouble saying no, Rouwenhost invited all of the models to take a group photo; attended by the national press, the event made a huge impact on the community of redheads, and so demand for future festivals was created. Since then, the Redhead Days Festival has been uniting redheads across the world, reaching as many as 1, 672 gingers in one photo, as noted in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The festival is free of charge and features a programme of activities, including 50 Shades of Red, where redheads find their exact hair tone, photobooths, a kids’ area with bouncy castles and face painting and a merch shop. The festival is free of charge and lasts three days, with Sunday being the group photo day, in which thousands of redheads make an image to remember for a lifetime.

Redhead Days Festival; 10 unique traits of redheads

1. Redheads are technically mutant; born when the MC1R gene, responsible for one´s skin and hair colour, is blocked, hence the body begins to produce more melanin that is responsible for the red tone, resulting in red hair and freckles.

       2. Redheads are extremely rare; redheads make up just 2 per cent of the world´s population. 

       3. The rarest combination in the world is red hair and blue eyes; there are only 13 million out of 7,6 billion with these features.

       4. Most redheads live in Ireland and Scotland, making up to 30 per cent of their populations.

       5. Redheads are more susceptible to pain since their bodies struggle to process analgesics and they usually require more anaesthetics.

       6. Redhead men are 50 per cent less likely to develop prostate cancer than non redheads.

       7. Redheads are sensitive to cold, due to the MC1R gene which over-activates a temperature-detecting gene, making redheads feel colder than others.

       8. Redheads have the lowest hair density out of all hair colours.

       9. Non-redhead couples can have redhead children; the gene that makes one a ginger can be hidden in the DNA.

        10. Redheads are not going extinct; even if there aren´t many redheads visible, a big part of the population carries the gene that can make a redhead baby; the characteristic will continue to be a rare and beautiful trait.

Written by a redhead with blue eyes.