Redhead Day
In 1979, Dutch public broadcaster VPRO organized a 'redhead day' in Baarn, Utrecht.
As a painter, he was inspired by artists like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Gustav Klimt.
To follow in the footsteps of his favourite painters, Rouwenhorst planned an exhibition of fifteen new paintings of redheads.
Finding models was problematic, since redheads are rare in the Netherlands where only two percent of the population has natural red hair.
At the events in later years, the aim was to attract redheaded men as well as women, but still the sexes are not equally distributed.
The festival poster contained a picture of a redheaded model (Milanne) in a wedding dress.
In 2008 some Dutch calendars started noting the first Sunday of September as the official Redheadday, a day honouring redheads.
Program booklets were provided in three languages (Dutch, English and German) and groups of redheads appeared with T-shirts and flags reflecting their home country, like Germany, France and Italy.
The organisation estimated that 4,000 people with natural red hair came from thirty countries.
On Friday, an unofficial opening was held for the volunteers and some visitors from the Netherlands, Germany, UK, Ireland and the US.
The organisation estimated that despite the forecast rain, the same number of visitors came to Breda, this time from over fifty countries.
Owing to its large global appeal this festival officially changed its name from the Dutch "Roodharigendag" to the "Redhead Days".
The event started with a Kick-off party at the Mezz in Breda on Friday evening 31 August where participants were treated to an abridged version of the documentary "Being Ginger" and a performance by the band "Convoi Exceptional".
For the second time the festival opened with a kick-off party at the Mezz in Breda during which the film LUIM MC1R by director Tjepke Zijlstra was shown and "Vanessa Voss and Band" performed.
In 2015 the Redhead Days celebrated its 10th anniversary with the special theme of Vincent van Gogh, exactly 125 years since the Dutch Grand Master's death.
Tilburg was chosen due to location, openness to new plans, new area developments like the Spoorzone and Spoorpark, and integrity of the local government: recently the Tilburg government won a prize for its integrity.
The organization created a record-breaking festival with many activities, ranging from pub-crawls to lectures, photo-shoots and workshops.
Not only were there more activities (including laughter yoga, portrait drawing workshop, dance classes).
But also performances by GINGE, a redhead Dutch singers and Jackie T, a world-renowned trumpeter.
