Musiques et Traditions, Folklore Festival de Outremeuse

August 15th in Liege is a BIG deal!
Across the Meuse, the river that runs through the middle of Liege, is Outremeuse. The town is famous for it's puppet shows, the marionette sort. These puppets and theatre shows seem to be local legends, and the festival is in honor of them! It began after work on the 14th, the parade began at 2pm on the 15th, and from what I hear the Liegians party until the wee hours of the 16th. Belgium declares the 15th a work holiday, so it gets pretty rowdy! Stephen and I went after work on Tuesday, and it was crowded, but not terribly. We wandered around, took pictures of things we saw that were interesting (as you can see here) and ate dinner--yes, it was ANOTHER brat for Stephen. The local drink here, Peket, is served at almost every tent. Some tents boast they have 40 different flavors, others serve trays of 5 or 6 different flavors. It's pretty wild. There were carnival rides for the kids, brasseries for the adults, and concerts for people of all ages. It was a lot of fun. We decided to go home, after wandering in the rain for an hour or so, around 10:30. Little did we know, the party doesn't even start until minuit (12am) or after! We slept in on Wednesday, and around lunchtime headed back over to the party! The parade was a long awaited adventure (about an hour late and not very well organized) but it was GREAT! There were huge puppets, kids bands, polka dancers, you name it! We had lunch there, and enjoyed the afternoon of sunshine before heading back for a nap on Stephen's day off! I love these random days off (well, random to us) and festivals! I could get used to pony rides and cotton candy! :) We've included some funny wardrobe findings...hope you enjoy those as well! The rain hit last night, and it seems its going to continue all day. I'm trying to find a break so I can go run...we'll see! Hope everyone is doing well! We're still stocking our archive of hair styles, I didn't forget!