‘Red love’: Hundreds of redheads gather in western France

529

CHATEAUGIRON, France, Aug 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Ginger, auburn, strawberry
blonde; all types of redheads turned out in their hundreds in western France
on Saturday for the first “Red Love” festival.

“I was born red, I will stay red and I am beautiful like everyone around
me,” declared Simon, a 32-year-old farm worker who travelled to the festival
to hang out with “people like us”.

“I was teased when I was young, called named like ‘carrot-top’,” he added,
“it’s the same as if you’re fat.”

Waiting to be served at a food truck, Liam Fife was standing with three
friends he met at “Roodharigendag” (redhead day) the biggest get-together of
redheads in the world which taken place every year in the Netherlands.

“Until I was 15, it was awful for me,” said the young man with a long red
beard.

“Now when I see a child I encourage them. I don’t want them to be subjected
to the same isolation,” he said at the festival, held in the Brittany town of
Chateaugiron.

The festival-goers enjoyed concerts and shows including a fashion parade of
18 redheads in wedding dresses.

Among the best-selling items on display were T-shirts emblazoned with the
slogan “Ginger is the new black”.

By midday, 1,200 people had showed up, said organiser Pascal Sacleux, who
expressed the hope that “one day the jokes at the expense of redheads will be
a thing of the past, when everyone realises how unfounded and stupid they
are”.