Floating bathtubs battle it out in a colorful Belgian regatta

More than 200 participants competed in bathtub rafts colorfully decorated with iconic Belgian symbols including the Manneken Pis statue, fries and the Atomium landmark, in an annual regatta on the Meuse River in the Belgian city of Dinant.

The unique race started in 1982 after a local shopkeeper heard on the radio that someone in Italy had gone down a river in a bathtub, co-organizer of the event Maxence Adam said.

"He then went to a hardware dealer and bought a whole bunch of bathtubs, which he dropped in front of the shops of our city. This encouraged local shopkeepers to join. That was in 1982, it's 2024 now and it still exists," Adam said.

This year's theme was Belgium, so people dressed up as Tintin, the Smurfs, Jacques Brel, and decorated bathtubs with Belgian symbols.

"It's the first time I'm doing a real activity with my best friend. We've been friends for almost ten years and we realized that we don't do many things that are out of the ordinary," Edouard Adrien, 28, said while sitting in his bathtub raft, dubbed the bathmobile.

Joining is not as simple as taking your bathtub and jumping into the river, he added.

Rules for the rafts

"There're regulations... For the raft to be approved, at least one bathtub on the raft must touch the river Meuse. That's the most important rule," Adam said.

There's always the risk of sinking. Two of the 42 bathtub rafts in Thursday's regatta did not make it to the finishing line. For those who did, there was no need to worry about coming last: every participant received a medal or trophy, with awards given for originality, theme, beauty, and ambiance.