Het's-Gravenhaagsche vacantie-kinderfeest 1920

Summary

Reportage about roughly a thousand children from The Hague on their annual outing to Soesterberg.

This film follows roughly a thousand children from The Hague on their annual outing to Soesterberg. At six in the morning, the participants gather with their parents and other family members on the Prinsengracht. Despite the early hour, a drum band bangs away enthusiastically. In a long procession, the whole group heads to the special train that will take the children to Soesterberg. As they say goodbye at the station, the ecstatic children hang out of the train's windows and eagerly wave handkerchiefs at the family members who stay behind. In the first few train carriages, several children make music. When they arrive in Soesterberg, a brass band plays the official song of the ‘holiday children's party’, and the children are served a breakfast that they devour on the spot. Glasses of milk are waiting for them in the camp. During an activity on the moor, the children encounter a group of gnomes and their king. Meanwhile, military cooks at the camp prepare a meal consisting of potatoes, gravy, and beans. Like dock workers, the cooks stir and ladle in gigantic pots and pans. The children clearly enjoy the food, as do the guides and a few notables. With the brass band leading the way, the children and their guides wave goodbye as they leave the camp. In the last intertitle, the organisers and the leaders are thanked for a 'wonderful day'. The notables in attendance include the revue artist Henri ter Hall, who collected donations for these holiday children's parties during the performance of his revue shows. This practise was also later adopted by the Nederlandsche Bioscoopbond for the ‘bio-vakantieoorden ’.