Cartoonfestival Knokke-Heist

The tradition & historical record

The Cartoon Festival of Knokke-Heist (Dutch: Cartoonfestival Knokke-Heist) is an annual international festival in the Belgian municipality Knokke-Heist showcasing cartoons from all over the world. Various prizes are also awarded during the festival, including the Golden Hat (Dutch: Gouden hoed), the most prestigious, as well as the Silver Hat (Dutch: Zilveren hoed) and the Bronze Hat (Dutch: Bronzen hoed). It is the oldest cartoon festival in the world, with the first edition taking place in 1962. A book of 100 selected cartoons is published annually. ¹

The first festival was organized in 1962 with the theme of tourists. About 25 Belgian cartoonists were approached. Among them were the cartoonists Bob de Moor and Marc Sleen. Other participants included Cram, Dani, GAL, GoT, Hugoké, Pil en Ploeg. The first festival was attended by 17,136 visitors. The first jury included Jos Ghysen, Gaston Durnez, Rik Sabbick and Luc Verstraete. ¹

* The 2014 Silver Hat was initially awarded to Iranian Mohammadreza Babaei, who was later disqualified as the cartoon he submitted was plagiarized from a design by Milton Graser. ¹

2003: Guido Depraetere, Peter van Straaten, Stefan Verwey, Dirk Denoyelle, Kim Duchateau, Zaza 2004: Guido Depreatere, Inge Heremans, Bart Schoofs, Karl Meersman, Carry Goossens, Peter Frison 2005: Guido Depraetere, Jeroom, Canary Pete, Steve, Marec 2006: Guido Depraetere, Karl Meersman, Lies Maertens, Quirit, Ilah, Katrien De Vreese 2007: Marec, Kim, Peter Nieuwendijk, Bob Vincke, Hein De Meyere, Katrien De Vreese 2008: Bob Vincke, Ludo Goderis, Kurt Defrancq, Katrien De Vreese, Dieter Bevers 2009: Karl Meersman, Kim Duchateau, Steven Degryse, Katrien De Vreese, Rudy Gheysens 2010: Rudy Gheysens, Katrien De Vreese, Steven Degryse, Guido Packolet, Pieter De Poortere, Bart Stolle 2011: Frank JMA Castelyns, Kurt Valkeneers, Steven Degryse, Steve Michiels, Luc Janssen, Katrien De Vreese, Guido Packolet 2012: Geert Hoste, Fleur Van Groningen, Jonas Geirnaert, Sam De Graeve, Inge Heremans, Urbanus, Katrien De Vreese 2024: Pieter De Poortere, Steven Degryse, Laura Janssens, Karl Meersman, Prudence Geerts, Tine Anthoni, Steve Michiels, Kim Duchateau, cartoonist KIM, Toon Horsten ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Cartoonfestival Knokke-Heist”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Cartoonfestival Knokke-Heist is annual international festival in the Belgian municipality Knokke-Heist, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²