Tong Tong Festival and Tong Tong Fair

Voor Nederlandstalige informatie over het Tong Tong Festival en de Tong Tong Fair (voorheen Pasar Malam Besar), surf naar www.tongtongfair.nl.

The Tong Tong Fair in The Hague is the biggest Eurasian fair in the world. In 2008 it was held for the 50th time - a golden jubilee, with 133,000 visitors!

The event is a sensory stimulating blend of cultural festival, exhibition and food fest rolled into one, held in an archipelago of tents and stands. One of the biggest attractions is the Tong Tong Festival, with more than 400 performances spread over 12 days. The daily entry ticket for the Tong Tong Fair also includes a theatre pass for the Tong Tong Festival.

So, if you don't have the time or money to travel all the way to South-East Asia, come to the Tong Tong Fair in The Hague and imagine that you are in the East. The Tong Tong Fair comprises the immense Grand Pasar, the famous East-West exhibition with hundreds of stands offering Eastern merchandise and food. Many of the exhibitors come all the way from Indonesia especially for the event. Equally famous is the Food Court with dozens of restaurants and ‘warungs’; it is one of the biggest of its kind in Europe.

The international Tong Tong Festival takes place in five theatres on the fair site. The large Bintang Theatre (seats approx. 600) is where the  major music and dance artists perform. The Tong Tong Podium is used mainly for acoustic sets and dance. In the Culinary Theatre (‘Kooktheater’) master chefs demonstrate how to prepare both difficult and easy dishes from various Asian cuisines. The intimate Bibit Theatre presents lectures, interviews and theatrical performances: mostly in Dutch, but increasingly in English too. In the Bengkel (studio) you are welcome to participate in all kinds of workshops: in music, dance, art, cooking and lots more. We have had the pleasure of welcoming artists, lecturers, master chefs and cooks from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore and the United States in recent years.