Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
1280px-Sinterklaas_portrait
Sinterklaas (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Michell Zappa) - Credit: Sinterklaas (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Michell Zappa)
Entertainment
Sinterklaas
Zwarte Piet
blackface
Veenendaal
Winkelstad Veenendaal
Tuesday, 21 July 2020 - 12:40
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Veenendaal says no to blackface at upcoming Sinterklaas arrival

The Sinterklaas festivities in Veenendaal this year will feature no Zwarte Pieten in blackface makeup, the organizers of the annual event announced. Whether a Sinterklaas party can be held at all will depend on the coronavirus and measures around it, "but it is already clear that there will be no Zwarte Pieten", the board of Winkelstad Veenendaal said to ANP.

Winkelstad Veenendaal, the foundation that represents the interests of entrepreneurs in the city center and organizes the annual Sinterklaas party, said that it is looking for "suitable alternatives" to Sinterklaas' blackface helper. Last year, the Veenendaal party already featured some Chimney Pieten, Sinterklaas helpers with soot marks on their faces, instead of blackface makeup.

"The Sinterklaas party is a party for all children. If certain groups in our society experience Zwarte Piet as hurtful, we want to take this into account. Everyone should be welcome and feel welcome in Veenendaal," the foundation said.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Regional train drivers to join next week's public transport strike
  • No excess mortality in last two weeks of January
  • Delft students present world's "most efficient" hydrogen car
  • Signal failure briefly halts train traffic around A'dam; NS warns of significant delays
  • Over 75% drop in fraud with Marktplaats payment requests
  • Gov't wants to keep crisis asylum shelters open for longer

Top stories

  • Signal failure briefly halts train traffic around A'dam; NS warns of significant delays
  • Matching medicine dosage to patient's DNA can cut side effects 30%: LUMC
  • Dutch airports' traveler numbers not yet back to pre-pandemic levels in 2022
  • Dutch parliamentarians support €57 rent reduction for low-income households
  • European office to gather proof of war crimes in Ukraine will set up in The Hague
  • Nine suspects arrested in Netherlands for 50 ATM bombings in Germany

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content