This is an informal event in a public area, BELLFLOWER Town Center Park, from 11am - 1pm.
This is to celebrate 25 years of Geocaching, with an opportunity to taste Dutch Food, in particular Dutch New Herring. Parking in the area can be challenging, and an added waypoint provides additional parking. This is a great opportunity to talk geocaching, share trackables and stuff and this is the only opportunity this year to try some new herring with The Flying Dutchmen without setting a foot in Holland!
An introduction to: 🇳🇱🇳🇱 Flag Day - Dutch Herring Day! 🇳🇱🇳🇱
Traditionally, a grand celebration is held around the arrival of the "Hollandse Nieuwe" or "New Herring" in the Netherlands. In the harbour of the town of Scheveningen, part of the city of The Hague, about 200,000 people celebrate the arrival of the New Herring and eat it raw (with maybe chopped raw onions) from that day on. Basically this is the first catch of the year and people must indulge in their craving for herring. This year the "Hollandse Nieuwe" or "new herring" will arrive June 22nd. From then on you will find the "Hollandse Nieuwe" on farmers markets througout The Netherlands. Here is a short YouTube video that shows what the herring looks like and how the "Hollandse Nieuwe" is consumed, in case you are interested.
The good news is that a small barrel of "Hollandse Nieuwe" will fly along with the flagship airplane of the largest Dutch airline, named "The Flying Dutchman", from Amsterdam to LAX, arrives just in time and is then driven to Bellflower! If you want it fresher than this, you'll need to fly to Holland. For good record, there is no association at all with the Flying Dutchmen Geocachers and we have zero involvement and nill association with the shipment or with that Dutch airline.
🇳🇱🇳🇱 Dutch Herring Day in Bellflower, CA 🇳🇱🇳🇱
Here are a few herring pictures, and how it is typically consumed.
Of course there are easier ways to do this, but why should we?
Community Celebration Events - 2025
This Event is part of a limited release of Community Celebration Events to celebrate 25 years of geocaching. Geocachers hosted events between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025. Learn more about Community Celebration Events on the Geocaching Blog.