Adriana Torres admitted that it was somewhat surprising to see her nephew so enamored with a small wooden shoe.
Her nephew, Saul, from Mount Vernon, had never heard of klompen before, but liked seeing the miniature shoe float down a makeshift canal constructed for children’s enjoyment.
“He’s having fun with that water and that shoe,” Torres said.
Anything having to do with water was popular at Oak Harbor’s sun-soaked Holland Happening celebration last weekend.
With blue skies and warm temperatures Saturday, the event drew so many people that some food vendors had trouble keeping up with the demand.
Saturday morning’s parade drew about 6,000 people to downtown; however, it was estimated that about 15,000 came to the city’s Dutch celebration that day, according to counts taken by the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce, the event’s organizer.
“This whole event doesn’t happen without community sponsors and those volunteers,” said Christine Cribb, the Chamber’s executive director, adding that about 60 volunteers helped.
Temperatures in Oak Harbor rose from the 60s on Saturday to about 10 degrees warmer Sunday.
Water features were most popular, such as the venue for the traditional klompen canal races and the pool that let kids roll around like hamsters inside Wobble Bobble balls.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Cribb said of the weekend.
The Chamber made efforts to try to bring the festival back to its authentic Dutch roots by inviting vendors that would comply with traditions and showcasing signs written in both the English and Dutch languages.
Dwight and Jennifer Adema of Coupeville took turns handing out tiny Holland flags to passersby. They are members of the Holland-American Koffie Klets group that meets monthly in Oak Harbor.
Having moved from Colorado three years ago, the Ademas love that they’ve landed near a community that embraces Dutch traditions. They share stories of their family roots at their meetings.
“You want to hold on to some of the traditions if you can,” Dwight Adema said.
“They die if you don’t talk about them. The history here is so rich with Dutch, we hope it doesn’t die.”
