105th edition of the International Nijmegen Marches kicks off this weekend

People in Nijmegen are getting ready and are kicking off the Four Days Marches this Saturday afternoon. They frame the 105th edition of the Four Days Marches, which officially starts on Tuesday. With around 1.6 million visitors, the parties have grown into the largest multi-day and free festival in Europe. Furthermore, the tens of thousands of participants who participate in the Four Days Marches this year can count on beautiful walking weather. The walking tour starts on Tuesday, with distances of 30, 40, or 50 kilometers for four days. According to Weeronline, Tuesday will also be the warmest day, with about 26 degrees.

The Nijmegen Four-Days Festival wants to be as diverse and sustainable as possible. That's why this year the festival is offering sustainable meals at various locations in the city, where it is noted how many emissions the food has caused before it is sold. This way, visitors can decide for themselves how responsibly they want to eat. According to festival director Joris Bouwmeister, more space has also been made for people with disabilities, and separate programs for youth, seniors, and refugees have been added to the LGBTIQ+ festival Pink Wednesday on July 19. Pink Wednesday will conclude with a Pride Walk.

During the Nijmegen festival, there are about 50 stages in the center of the city, where more than a thousand artists perform. The organization keeps an eye on the crowd with crowd control, a method developed in Nijmegen that is now being used in many more places in and outside the Netherlands. If it is too busy somewhere, text messages indicate where there is still room. Sometimes parts of the center are temporarily closed.

Due to the Four Days Marches, Nijmegen will be difficult to reach through traffic in the coming week. The city center will be closed from Saturday to Friday every day from 6 p.m. As soon as the participants of the Four Days March are on their way, other thoroughfares will be closed for the arrival of the crowd of walkers. The on- and off-ramps of the highways will also be closed at times. Detour routes will be posted. Road authorities advise traffic to avoid Nijmegen. However, more and longer trains will run daily to and from Nijmegen.