Fish Festival - the action shots!

So with the October 23rd holiday in Hungary, we also had the annual fish festival in Tata. The town starts a process of draining the lake in early October (the weekend I went canoeing). Once the lake is drained a bit, they commence the fish "catching." It's actually a concentrated effort to net all the carp in the lake that they can. It's a big celebration when all the carp are brought in, and there are activities and contests surrounding the fish. It was quite an interesting experience - and I was glad to be there since I missed it last year.

The SJB statue is way more exposed than it is when there is water most of the way up the rock

this is a guy who is "bopping them on the head" a bit more forcefully than little bunny foo-foo ever did...

Many Hungarians lined up to select their fish to purchase

Of course the local priest was there to bless the situation. In the upper right of the picture is a rival choir... hmph. They actually sang two songs that I knew!

Bringing the fish from the table near the lake (after having been weighed) up to the large storage tanks

the large storage tanks for the fish

the line to purchase fish - it never died down... and they're buying CARP! ew.

the nets in the lake

nets and crowd watching

weighing the fish and marking down how much they bring in

the fish went from the lake to the table in the background, then they were weighed and hauled to the large storage tanks.

here is the table they were sorted on - they flopped all over the place and were quite physical

more "catching"

the crowd watching the fish catchers

having fun with his own "catch"

nets

the castle from atop the SJB statue

when things got a little slower

One of the reasons I love Hungary- this picture!!! The electricity was being run to a cord that was sitting in the water.... the plugs meeting just a few feet above the water line. GOTTA be safe...