The Pasar Malam Besar is one of the oldest festivals in The Netherlands, and in The Hague it is the annual event with the highest number of paying visitors: more than 100,000 annually since 1993. It most likely is the largest Eurasian festival in the world, adding a little spice to the Dutch festival calendar since 1959. The name literally means (translated from back to front): Large Evening Market. And less literally: Grand Fair.

A feast of music, dance and food
Since 1993 each year more than 100,000 visitors (a record number of 128,000 in 2006) have enjoyed the curious mix of trade, information, fun, food, music, dance, lectures and spontaneous reunion that the Pasar Malam Besar has to offer. And the great thing is you don't have to be able to understand Dutch to be part of it. The tropical event is a feast of music, dance, food, art and surprising souvenirs, that transcends all borders and language barriers.

Location

The Pasar Malam Besar is held on the Malieveld in the centre of The Hague, at just a five minutes walking distance from the Central Railway Station. The festival covers a terrain of approximately 20,000 sqm. Apart from the alun-alun ('middle field'), everything is covered: by fourteen small and large marquees — including the world's largest temporary structure, the 'New Galaxy'. If the weather is extremely fine, the sides of the tents can be raised, providing a light breeze to cool you off.

Tong Tong Festival

As the terrain is so large, and the five theatres offer such a varied programme, you'll easily spend a full day at the Pasar Malam Besar. The rich international cultural programma is presented as the Tong Tong Festival. In the Culinary Theatre ('Kooktheater') master chefs demonstrate the preparation of both difficult and easy recipes from several Asian cuisines. The large Bintang-Theatre (app. 600 seats) is the home for the big stars (bintangs). The Tong-Tong-Podium provides mainly acoustic sets and dance shows; it is situated in the middle of the fair, right between the stands. Many (but not all) lectures, interviews, and workshops in the intimate Bibit-Theatre and Bengkel (workshop studio) are given in Dutch, but several slide shows and video presentations will be equally interesting to non-Dutch-speakers, and some presentations, workshops and cooking demonstrations are given in English.

Indies cuisine

In three separate food halls many small and large restaurants serve delicious dishes from the exquisite Indonesian and Indies cuisine, freshly made. Indies ('Indisch') cuisine is the earliest fusion kitchen in the world: blending the best of the east and the west. In the food halls you will also find an incredible choice of cookies, snacks and tasty titbits, made from ingredients such as coconut, rice and rum. The fruit-seller imports loads of the notoriously smelly, but irresistible, durian as well as many other types of tropical fruit especially for this event. Herbs and vegetables (as well as tropical plants) are for sale.