Venlo says goodbye to controversial "Gray Piets" at Sinterklaas arrival

Venlo has decided not to use gray-faced Piets at their Sinterklaas arrival party as a compromise alternative to the blackface look that actors use when they play Zwarte Piet. Sinterklaas and his assistants will arrive in the city on Sunday, but the assistants will be covered in smears of ash and soot instead.

The organizing committee made the decision in consultation with the municipality. In doing so, the organization is meeting a demand from activist group Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) who threatened a demonstration on Sunday if the organization continued with the Gray Piets. The planned demonstration was cancelled after the committee made their decision.

The committee wanted to gradually abolish Zwarte Piet, and for that purpose a gray Piet was devised as a transition. But KOZP was not satisfied with that. The group said the gray Piets were a thinly-veiled relic of racism, and no amount of racism is permissible. That argument was ultimately followed.

The Venlo Kinderfeesten Foundation wants to keep their eyes open regarding "the tradition of the Sinterklaas party and for the fact that the party has always adapted to the zeitgeist," the organization said.

"For many fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, the focus this time is on the appearance of Piet. The organizing foundation is not deaf to all those opinions and feelings," the foundation said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Children will see the same Piet in Venlo and Blerick next Sunday as on the Sinterklaas Journaal and during the national arrival. This will not change the party for the children, but we will bring the celebration even more up to date," said Joep Raemakers, chair of Stichting Kinderfeesten Venlo.

Mayor Antoin Scholten is happy with the choice. "I appreciate the efforts that have been made to make Sinterklaas's party truly for all children."