Best of times Dutch host world's largest Dickens festival

Soon after limited S Sunday trading started in the Netherlands, an anglophile shopkeeper in the small city of Deventer decided that it could all be a bit more fun.

- Senay Boztas

"My 82-year-old mother, Emmy Strik, is England-minded because my grandfather always went to England and read a lot of Dickens," said her daughter, Liesbeth Velders, who now runs the Dille & Kamille homeware store. "So when we were going to open on Sunday, she decided to make it a fancy-dress party - except the fancy-dress party got a bit out of hand."

Decades later, Strik's experiment in literary frivolity has gone further than she could have imagined. The event she began in 1991 to commemorate Charles Dickens has run for 33 years, with a two-year break during the Covid pandemic.

Despite no known historical connection with the author, Deventer, in the eastern province of Overijssel, now plays host to what is believed to be the world's largest Dickens festival. This weekend, 950 volunteers will fill the streets of the ancient Bergkwartier, performing street theatre and selling hot punch and Victorian treats. There are strict rules for actors and traders: no trainers, modern watches or mobile phones.

Among the expected 125,000 visitors will be Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Queen Victoria, Miss Havisham, beggars, thieves and, for the first time, Dickens himself.