We need to sing a happy birthday.
I want to say something to you.
Shut up.
Shut up.
And I had to.
What was that?
What did you talk to me about?
30 years ago.
You're from Australia too?
Yes.
Yeah, you're together.
Hello.
What?
It beats every concert.
Right?
I do.
Q-A.
Stopper Q-A.
What did they do?
I don't know.
What?
I don't know.
Yeah.
I'm better than this morning.
I'm better than this morning.
Oh.
It's yesterday.
What week?
What week?
Oh, there's no place like home.
And we have arrived at the Red Hood days of 2014, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome.
To start off this evening,
I would like to introduce to you
our one and only director,
the big boss, Bartra Lohors.
Welcome, welcome all of you.
I stand here on behalf of the entire organization,
which has grown a lot.
There are now 70 people organizing
and over 200 people are volunteering
during this weekend, all for you.
So, welcome.
My wife always reminds me to keep things short
otherwise they get boring.
So, it will be a short speech.
We are proud and moved that so many people
came from so many countries,
from all over the world.
Tonight we are pleased that you are here.
There are about 100 organizers
who have never experienced Red Hood days before.
Our organization has really grown.
I think that if you are together as Red Hoods,
you will feel a special bond,
you will feel a special pride.
I hope you will use this feeling
to meet other people,
to talk to other people,
ask them many things
and to share stories
because that's what the event is all about.
And to have a great time, of course.
I wish you a lot of fun,
a lot of bonding,
and especially a lot of pride.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I was right here
and who is my
super supportive help
throughout these last couple of weeks
where stress has gone way up there.
So, thank you.
She has gotten the best
wonderland-ish stuff
to get your pictures taken.
That's all happening over there.
So, find your friends,
find your old friends,
meet new people,
and get a cool photo taken over there.
My name is Mark Cope.
This is Chris Payne.
We're a documentary filmmaker from Los Angeles.
Chris is the director of Who Killed the Electric Car?
Who's Dr. Greenling?
We're doing a documentary about Red Hoods.
I was born with bright red hair.
It's gotten darker,
but it was bright red,
and I was minded of it every day growing up.
I got teased, I'm sure a lot of you guys did,
and I grew to hate my red hair
and hate the people who didn't like me.
But what was worse
was I didn't just hate people for not liking my red hair.
I didn't like people with red hair.
And I couldn't figure out why.
I couldn't figure out why I was so mad
someone was judging me because of my hair color,
and yet I couldn't figure out why I was judging other people
for the same exact reason.
I'm sure a lot of you guys are
if you travel from all over the world to come to this event,
and one day Chris and me were working on a film,
and I said,
it's not easy being a redhead,
and he made the terrible decision to ask me,
what do you mean?
And what it's really about is this new movement
that is happening that I believe this event
is really the heart of,
and that is the building of a redhead culture.
That suddenly being a redhead
is this is forming a community.
It's whether you consider it
a minority or a group
or just a community.
It's more than just hair color.
And we think that's a really amazing thing
and we want to document that.
So it's really quick that I want to let you guys know
what we're really looking for is
anything.
Anything has to do with red hair.
But if you have some sort of medical background
or historical background or educational background,
and that somehow relates
to your interest in red hair,
we'd love to talk to you.
We're not a redhead,
but you're here to support redheads.
We'd love to talk to you.
If you're in love with a redhead
or your child is a redhead
or your mom is a redhead,
we'd love to talk to you.
We don't want to just talk about redheads,
but we also want to talk about all redheads.
If you came from the farthest place,
if you're from Antarctica
and you brought your penguin with you
or if you're from next door,
and this is a really easy event to go to,
we really want to talk to you.
We're just really excited.
Come up to me or Chris when you see us
or anyone carrying a little folder like Chris has.
We're going to have a few different crews going around.
We'd love to hear your stories.
If we can't interview at that exact moment,
we'll take your information down
and try to interview you later.
We're really excited to be here.
This is going to be great and we're really excited for this film.
It's been amazing.
I hope when this film comes out,
it affects you
because, like I said earlier,
before, probably a year ago,
coming to a festival of redheads
would have sounded like a nightmare to me.
I would not understand
why I'd want to emphasize the thing
I hated so much about myself.
And through making this film
over the past several months,
not only do I feel like I belong
at a festival like this,
I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be.
I hope you guys have a great festival.
I hope you guys use this
and just rattle off forever and ever with us.
So we just have so much to do
and we don't know what to do with ourselves.
Hope you guys have a great festival.
Thank you so much for having us.
Emma, could you please come up
and do your thing
like last year?
So I am from a website
called Ginger Parrot.
It's a website where redheads
and redhead lovers are like.
So basically everyone in this room
should definitely go to it.
It's gingerparrot.co.uk.
This is the third time that we've been here.
First of all,
I just want to say a huge congratulations
to all the team at the Redhead days
because I'm so excited about this event
that's coming up.
It's actually my third time here.
I just love meeting all the people,
seeing the familiar faces,
meeting lots of new friends
and just kind of embracing the whole
energy and enthusiasm of the event.
As it happens, I actually
organise a very similar event
called the Irish Redhead Convention
which is going to take place
in Crosshaven and County Cork
two weeks ago.
Our visiting dignitary
that Natalie just told you about
will be coming tomorrow.
That is no other than our Queen
of the Redheads.
Our Queen, Laura May,
who was elected Queen
two weeks ago, will be here.
She will be among you.
She will be part of the Children's
Photoshoot.
She will be part of the Royal Role
so not only get Joe Steele's autograph
but also get Laura May's autograph
and she's going to have some certificates
of genuine foxiness for any of you
who are around.
Guys, that's it. Enjoy the weekend.
It's an amazing experience.
As I said, it's my third time here.
I love coming back here.
It's a huge inspiration for me
and I just can't wait to have a good party.
Just to prove I'm a Redhead.
No, really.
So, I held my team
and I learned
the experience of what it's like
to put on one of these events
and it's astonishingly hard
and expensive.
Everyone needs to give Bart another round of applause
for how much work
and his team have done.
It's only been a year
for a couple of weeks tonight.
Thank you very much.
I wish I could have applaud along with you.
So, I attempted to do this
with my team.
I have to give a shout out to
my incredible lead,
Sunshine Dixon, of course.
She's not here, unfortunately,
but she's in here in spirit.
And so many others that I had for volunteering
and help for the Redhead event
you can find on Facebook,
Redhead event.
In fact, we're a non-profit
for raising awareness for melanoma
and skin cancer
for amongst Redheads.
It's a friendly competition
of gathering the largest number
of natural Redheads in one place.
This is a brick from Pioneer Square.
You can put your name on
the brick, I'm assuming,
from Redhead Days.
And I want to just have
this collaboration and this grouping.
So, thank you very much, Bart.
And the various great names.
My name is Shantel.
I'm from Australia.
Thank you.
When I've been looking forward
to Redhead's Day for four years,
I first heard about it
in 2010.
And I decided to come this year because
I was a little bit worried.
My name is
Shantel.
I'm from Redhead.
I'm from Redhead.
I'm from Redhead.
I'm from Redhead.
I'm from Redhead.
I'm from Redhead.
And so yeah, four years of build-up, it's been really anxiety-inducing waiting for this,
and that already exceeded my expectations, seeing so many redheads in one room is really
actually emotional for me, and I think the last time I saw this many natural redheads
was when I was in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day, so yeah, I'm really looking forward to
the next couple of days, and really looking forward to meeting some of you really lovely people,
and yeah, that's me.
Hi and Ken, I'm not a natural redhead. I went red for this event to support my new wife,
Jet. We heard about this event on the internet, and I said, let's go, and she went. Here we are,
from Houston, Texas, all the way to Greenville. Thank you, redheads. Thank you.
That's what touches me, people coming from all over the world, coming to this humble town of
Breda, and that touches me so much, and it just, I can do this again next weekend by the way,
so that's how much energy this gets me. Do your thing. Hi, I'm Stuart Sherman, I'm from Toronto,
Canada, and actually this is my fourth redhead day. I camped on by the colors that we wore.
That seems to be the easy way to go. I'm here with a whole bunch of my friends who, most of them,
we met online. We didn't know each other, and I'm pleased to say that I've actually traveled in
various places and met up with them, and we see them outside. And one of the things that I wish
for all of you is that if you look to your right or left and see somebody and get to know them a
little bit, that they'll actually become a friend in real life, not just on Facebook, and you'll
actually expand your world, which is what redhead day has done for me. And what I'd really like
to do is I'd like to actually take another minute to thank the organizers, because I think that
none of us realize how much work it takes to do this. It's like running a full-time job in your
spare time, and the amount of work and effort and money and financial risk that that is taken
just for the benefit of us is just huge. So everybody please. Thank you, Stuart. Like I said,
the energy this gives me, I could do it again next weekend, then the weekend after that,
it's just amazing to see you all here. Is there anybody else who would like to come up here?
Yeah? Yeah, come on up.
I'm Luke. I feel like I'm done, because all these people came from the other part of the
war. I just came from Italy. This is my second redhead day. Last time I was a volunteer,
and so I know what it takes to make it. And I want to thank you, Bart, for this beautiful experience
that I need to do it again. And I promise that next time I'll come with at least my brother and
my father, the redhead. And just one more thing. The camp is awesome. I just suggest to everyone
in the audience. My couch-surfing redhead day campsite buddy. Worked for three years.
Second or third year. And we keep in touch over the year. And then around redhead day,
it's like, hey, can I crash at your place? Sure. Every single year. So love every day.
Hi, guys. Natalie gave me the look that I should come up. Or at least I thought that's what was
happening. Yeah, totally. I'm Irene. I came from New York. This is my third year here. The first
year I just came by myself, and I didn't know anybody. And it just was amazing. And made tons
of friends that were here last year and this year. And I'm the only redhead in my family.
So it's great. I actually have redhead envy, because I'm like, oh my gosh, my hair isn't even
red enough. Which is the opposite of my day-to-day life. But yeah, I just want to make
some redheaded babies. So get a selfie with that poster and get yourself a chance to make redheaded babies.
Oh, yeah, thank you.
Oh, you did so hand style.
It's beautiful.
