Twelve-year-old Gilad had always dreamed of participating in the traditional Redheads Days Festival, an event that has taken place for nearly 20 years, drawing thousands of redheads from around the world.
This year, his parents made that dream come true, flying with him to an international event in the Netherlands. Even there, far from Israel, they didn’t forget to raise photos of the Bibas family, including their red-haired sons, Kfir and Ariel, who have been held hostage in Gaza since October 7.
"This is our first time attending the festival," said his mother, Nirit Weinberg-Keren. "My son is a redhead and really wanted to go. We decided to travel this year, even though it feels strange to continue with this semblance of normalcy while there’s a war going on. We thought about the Bibas family and everyone else who couldn’t come while we were free to travel. So, we decided to bring their pictures with us, so they could also be part of the event."
Nirit Weinberg-Keren explained that they hoped the photos of the family, who have been held captive in Gaza for nearly 11 months, would elicit empathy. However, the reality was different. "We thought people would show compassion," she said.
"But some just stopped, looked and moved on as if nothing was unusual. We were also a bit wary about staying too long with the photos because there are many Muslims in the area, so we tried to hang the signs in visible spots, to remind everyone that they’re still captive. I even approached international and local journalists, asking them to mention the Bibas family in their coverage of the festival, but they refused, explaining that it wasn’t a political event. We really hope the Bibas family is released soon. We’d love to come back and celebrate with them at the Redheads Festival," she added.
The festival, which has been held annually for nearly two decades, started almost by accident. Its organizer, amateur painter Bart Rouwenhorst, placed an ad in a local newspaper in 2005, seeking 15 redheads for a project. Instead of 15, he received 150 responses. Although Rouwenhorst is not a redhead himself – he's actually blonde – he decided to take a group photo with everyone who had contacted him. The event was a huge success and attracted so much attention that it was turned into an annual festival.
According to a Reuters report, redheads make up between 1% and 2% of the global population and between 2% and 6% of the population in northern or northwestern Europe. This year’s festival had an attendance of over 10,000 redheads. The event concludes with a traditional group photo, and in 2013 the photo session led to a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people with natural red hair, with 1,672 participants.