Yes, you are reading that headline correctly. The 2024 European Gull Screeching Championship has just taken place in De Panne, Belgium.
The Flemish seaside resort of De Panne hosted this year’s European Gull Screeching Championship at the weekend. Simao Joao flew back to Portugal with gold medal in the adult section. Nine-year-old Cooper Wallace from Chesterfield in England swooped off with gold in the junior category.
There’s not a lot more to say about this wacky competition. I’ll leave it to you to turn up the volume, play the videos, and annoy the neighbours!
Here’s one from the BBC, with their quaintly jingoistic stance:
Here’s a video report from Flemish TV station VRT: Seagull Screeching Competition
Actually if you want to really annoy the neighbours, how about starting to practice for next year’s competition?
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What fun! First time I’m hearing about the competition.
I’m surprised you didn’t hear it in the wind Rosaliene!
Nice to see a fun story on the news!
Indeed, we all need some uplifting news these days.
Great story, loving the win by someone from my hometown. However, I take serious issue with describing the coverage as “faintly jingoistic”. How is it ever jingoistic? The reporting was fair, light-hearted and virtually 100% neutral. People have a go at British media coverage rightly in many cases but this is not one of them. Amend that please.
Thanks for your comment Geoff, I guess the young boy is a local hero now in Chesterfield. By jingoistic I mean that they turned it into a story of national victory over the Europeans as if the boy was competing for his country instead of simply having fun. They could have asked him whether he imitates other bird sounds, how long he practices, what his friends think … not “how special does it mean to be a gold medal winner for the UK?”
I saw this on the news. Very strange, but why not? 🙂
A lot of wacky events take place in Belgium!
Great! I adore seagulls and I talk to them by Como Lake! I would like to take part to the next edition: how can I subscribe? Thanks for information 🙂
Keep an eye on this site for 2025 Paola: http://www.gullscreeching.eu/ Best of luck!